KARACHI, May 29: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday ordered that no fresh cellular connection or reactivation of a SIM card shall be issued without verification of an applicant’s biometric thumb printing from the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) with effect from July 1.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam also ordered that no SIMs shall be issued directly from the outlets of the cellular companies franchises. “The SIMs should be issued after verification from Nadra by taking thumb impression of the applicant and SIMs shall be dispatched through postal or courier service at the address of the customer which is available with Nadra,” it further ordered.

The bench gave the directions in its eight-page order in one of the 15 constitutional petitions filed by relatives of missing persons.

The court referred to a meeting of the Advocate General for Sindh, representatives of the cellular companies and other government functionaries held on the orders of the SHC chief justice and observed that the meeting appeared to have approved on an agreed proforma to obtain call data and information from the cellular companies.

The counsel appearing for the cellular firms stated that the information as called through the prescribed proforma in respect of a particular cell number or SIM could be provided instantly i.e. the same day within minutes and not more than a few hours for a period of six months from the date of its active use.

However, he said, data beyond six months was shifted to the main server which stored volume of data and it consumed time up to three to four days to retrieve the data of any SIM/cell number.

A representative of Ufone informed the court that the data beyond six months up to one year could be provided within three to four days.

The bench directed all cellular companies to provide SIM/cell data on the same day within the shortest possible period through email. Data beyond six months up to one year may be provided within three to four days, it ordered.

The bench directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to ensure that all the cellular companies were equipped with the GPS technology as well so as to facilitate the law-enforcement agencies in tracking down the culprits and cellular bomb devices.

The court directed the cellular companies to put the cell number on surveillance if prior information was given to the police by the focal person.

MP officers summoned

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday ordered the commanding officer of the Military Police, two majors and a captain to appear in court and directed the defence secretary to take action against the “delinquent officers who are apparently and prima facie indulged in intimidation and harassment to the citizens”.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam also directed the DIG of East to personally approach the army officers to ensure their appearance in court on July 17.

The bench was seized with a petition seeking whereabouts of a man who was reportedly picked up by the respondent army officials on April 4.

Petitioner Ehsanul Haq, who served as welder in the engineering wing of the Pakistan Air Force for 26 years, submitted that his son, Nauman, arrived here from Dubai on April 2 to participate in his brothers’ wedding.

He said that on April 4, Nauman was making a film on the rooftop of his house that was situated near an MP check post in Malir cantonment. He said Captain Ehsan and other army officials came and asked his son to delete the movie that was immediately deleted in their presence.

After five minutes, the petitioner said, some plain-clothed men came at his house and took away his son, whose whereabouts were still unknown.

The bench ordered appearance of the officers and cautioned that it would issue coercive process for the appearance if they did not attend the court on the next date of hearing.