Cellphone firms withdraw petition against ban on late-night packages
A view of Islamabad High Court (IHC). — File Photo
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court dismissed on Thursday a petition against banning mobile chat services and late-night packages after petitioners withdrew their petition.
The petitioners – Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Warid and Zong – through their counsel Ali Raza requested the court to allow them to withdraw their petition after the respondent Pakistan Telecommunication Authority submitted its reply along with some transcripts of communication it had intercepted during late-night conversation of consumers.
PTA’s counsel Ahmer Bilal Soofi informed the court that the authority had directed the cellular companies on Oct 14 to stop “voice chat, chat line, gup shup, talk shalk, dosti package and late-night packages” after receiving complaints from different segments of society.
He said parliamentarians, media persons, students, parents and social activists had lodged complaints with the PTA and called for imposing a ban on the said services. The PTA, he said, intercepted several conversations with obscene contents.
Under Section 3 of the PTA Act, the authority could regulate the establishment and other affairs of mobile phone operators. If the cellular companies felt aggrieved of any of PTA’s directives they could file an appeal, Mr Soofi said.
And the fact that the court OVERLOOKED this speaks volumes about our judicial system. Wow.
Violation of privacy is a crime and the PTA chairmen are criminals for doing just that. No entity (not even Blackberry Servers for their BBM) is allowed to invade an individual’s privacy without a court warrant or other legal procedure. Our cellphone firms need to file a lawsuit against PTA for basic infringement of customer privacy. It’s not the fact that PTA wants to remove late night packages, but how they “intercepted communication” to justify their decision that is a violation of basic human rights to privacy.
When the nations can not distinguish between good and bad its of course the laws and governments who have to be wise, protecting against the mass damage (spoil generation) which, is far more lethal than economic damage.
I’m not going to defend*
This is ridicules. The basic freedoms are being infringed here and the court acts as an enabler of radical views. I’m going to defend what people do with there time at night because I am very well aware of it. But that is something that comes part and parcel to freedom. One can not police the basic rights of businesses to control how they earn their revenues. Who in their right thinks that this would in any be able to control the concerns showed. All that this has done is not limit the time within which such conversations take place. Parents need to stop blaming governments and business for problems they are at fault with. If you have such concerns for your children be better and smarter parents. And realize that your children are probably already damaged.
If a company bundles a good amount of free or discounted talk talktime against a special tariff voucher for anytime use within the validity period, and such benefits are used by any user at late night, will it be in contravention of the PTA order?