KARACHI, Jan 9: The mushroom growth of the telecoms sector and increased use of cellphones in Pakistan – made possible by low tariffs of calls and messages and easy availability of connections (SIM cards) – has had the unintended consequence of the valuable communications tools being misused on a large scale.

Bothersome missed calls from strangers, indecent messages and crank calls are some of the common complaints cellphone users often report. The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee Karachi receives at least 10 complaints every day, with people complaining of harassment at the hands of strangers or blackmailers.

Surprisingly however, during 2007, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) zonal office in Karachi received only 62 complaints of unsolicited calls/messages, while the PTA blocked/warned 56 users, whereas six cases were such that no action could be taken against them as there was a false CNIC copy given at the time the number was purchased.

The lack of checks on the sale of Subscriber Identity Modules (or SIMs, the little cards that connect handsets with mobile networks when inserted into phones), is the principal reason for the misuse of cellular phones. The vice-president of a cellular company informed Dawn that on average, in Pakistan each person has almost 1.7 SIMs.

SIMs are relatively cheap, ranging from Rs100 (with Rs50 balance) to Rs350 in price and easily available at paan stalls, public call offices and cellphone dealers without even the need of showing one’s national identity card. Ironically, it is more complicated to lodge a complaint against cellphone harassment than it is to buy one.

When queried, the PTA’s Regional Director Rizwan Ahmed Hydri said that “A complaint cell has been established at PTA headquarters Islamabad with a toll free number (0800-55055). On this number complainants can lodge their grievances, which are checked against SMS records and violators (depending upon severity) are warned or their SIMs are blocked. In case some criminal activity is suspected, the case may be handed over to the relevant law-enforcement agency.”

But Shyema Khan, a cellphone user, sees the situation in a different light. “Earlier on when SIMs were expansive, the procedure of filing a complaint was much more effective as lesser people had them,” she said. “My mother received numerous text messages and calls from a number and the person kept insisting that she had won a prize worth Rs0.2 million. Whenever I have called the cellphone companies to block the number, the network people would plainly say that it would do no good as usually people have more than one SIM and can use the others if one gets blocked. So ultimately, we have just stopped paying attention to such messages or calls,” she said.

Misusing technology

With technologies such as Bluetooth and infrared installed in almost all the mobile sets and MMS (multimedia messaging service) facilities available with all the cellular networks, the issue of transferring videos and photos using them has to be taken up, as there is no mechanism currently in place that could put a halt to the misuse of these technologies.

“There have been many incidents where girls in particular have been blackmailed by acquaintances by making a video using a cellphone while they were out with one of their male friends,” informed Zainab Ishaq, a college student. “The scary part about this is that the camera in the cellphone is very small and anyone can pretend to be checking out numbers from their phone directory while making a video,” she said.

Ms Khan had a surprising observation to add. “At Khadda Market in the DHA, security guards and labourers idle near the stadium. They have mobile phones with cameras and are ready to capture a photo or a movie of any female passing by,” she said.

Shahid Abbasi, Vice-President Projects at cellular network Instaphone, said that though he is aware of such incidents, “we can’t actually do anything about the MMS. We can encrypt the SMSs by tagging certain words, but we can’t do that with picture messages.” He agreed that since call charges for cellular networks have dramatically dropped over the years, the menace of crank calls and messages has increased.

Abbasi, however, came up with a suggestion to check the misuse of SIM cards. “Like with credit cards, SIM cards should also be given at a personal guarantee, and to verify the address they should be delivered at home and not be bought at shops,” he said. However, both the PTA and cellular networks have been trying to sort things out with the help of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

They claim that from now on all the CNIC copies given at the time of buying a connection of any cellular network would be verified and if found issued to a phoney person, the SIM would be blocked.