PESHAWAR: As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police claim unverified and illegal SIM cards are used in majority of terrorist acts in the province, the Peshawar High Court had sounded an alarm on the issue last year but it fell on deaf ears as the powerful cellphone companies took shelter behind legal technicalities.

In Sept last year, the high court had issued several orders and had directed cellphone companies to pay compensation to the families of the victims of terrorist activities in which unverified or illegal SIM cards were used.

Payment of compensation under the laws on qisas (retribution) and diyat (blood money) was also ordered.

Police insist terrorists, criminals using unverified SIM cards

The court had also taken notice of the use of Afghan SIM cards in the country and ordered the National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to conduct an inquiry into it.

The NAB had informed the court that 40,000 cellphone SIM cards of Afghan telecom companies were operational in the country and were used in bomb blasts, kidnappings for ransom, and extortions.

In the wake of the Peshawar school carnage, provincial police officer Nasir Khan Durrani recently requested the federal and provincial governments to make stringent laws for checking rampant use of illegal SIM cards by terrorists and criminals in the country.

The PPO pointed out that the illegal use of SIM cards was not an offence but only a violation of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Act 1996 and the PTA could only seek explanation from or issue show cause notice to the relevant mobile phone service providers.

He said though the federal government had made biometric verification a pre-requisite for issuance of new SIM cards, terrorists and criminals continued to use unverified SIM cards.

Then PHC Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, who is currently a Supreme Court judge, had taken suo motu notice of scores of issues including the illegal use of SIM cards and use of such cards of Afghan companies in the country.

During the hearing into a case, Justice Dost Mohammad had observed that the illegal SIM cards were so easily available on the market that one could not even purchase vegetables with such an ease.

In its initial inquiry, the NAB had informed the court that there were two mechanisms through which the Afghan SIM cards operated in the country.

According to it, in some cases, Afghan SIM cards are activated in Afghanistan and function in Pakistan’s tribal areas through the signals emanating from Afghanistan, while in other cases, such SIM cards function due to the roaming facility given to the relevant Afghan company by a Pakistani mobile phone operator.

However, the high court’s efforts couldn’t be taken to its logical conclusion as cellphone companies moved the Supreme Court against its orders.

As the court had placed restrictions on the suo motu powers by a high court chief justice in different cases, it also went in favour of cellphone companies and the high court’s directives were not implemented.

Following that ruling by the apex court, a citizen, Atif Haleem, filed a petition related to different issues about cellphone companies.

That petition has still been pending with the court.

Recently, a PTA representative informed the high court that Afghan SIM cards couldn’t be used in the country any longer as it had got roaming service suspended on them.

He claimed on tip-offs, the PTA officials along with those of the Federal Investigation Agency had been raiding different areas and premises to recover illegal and unauthorised SIM cards and seize illegal phone gateways.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2014