KCCI welcomes Rangers warning to mobile phone firms
KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, while welcoming Pakistan Rangers Sindh’s warning to all mobile phone companies about the sale of unregistered/ illegal SIMs, reiterated KCCI’s six-year old demand to shut down all prepaid SIMs in one go and reissue them to subscribers’ postal addresses which would get rid of all illegal SIMs.
Advocating Pakistan Rangers Sindh’s warning to book executives of mobile phone companies if any illegal SIM is found to have been used in any terror activity, President KCCI recalled that Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli has been raising this particular issue since past six years and urging the governments from time to time to order all mobile phone companies to shut down all prepaid SIMs and reissue them to subscribers’ postal addresses which would get rid of illegal SIMs.
BMG Chairman believes that this entire process of reissuing prepaid SIMs to subscribers’ postal addresses through courier service can be completed within two to three days as all mobile phone companies operating in Pakistan were fully equipped and using state-of-the-art IT solutions to maintain their database, President KCCI noted, adding that this was the only way to effectively deal all those terrorism and criminal activities which were being carried out with the help of illegal SIMs.
Slamming cellular companies’ viewpoint that such a ‘tone and approach’ may hamper the confidence of the foreign operators who have invested billions of dollars in the country, President KCCI stated that the entire country was in a state of war particularly after the Peshawar School incident yet the mobile phone companies were concerned about their businesses and profitability. “We simply do not understand whether lives are more important or the businesses of these mobile companies. In such a dire situation, no leniency should be granted and no compromises be made at any cost with a single intention to provide relief to the entire nation who are fearlessly being threatened with the help illegal SIMs”, he added.
The Karachi Chamber has never missed a single opportunity to bring this serious issue to the notice of decision makers during the past six years. BMG Chairman, Siraj Kassam Teli has been reiterating many a times that over 70 percent of crimes of all kinds and terrorists activities take place using mobile phones and the only solution is to shut down all the prepaid Sims in one go and get them reissued to their postal addresses as per CNIC through courier services which would get rid of illegal SIMs.
He believes that mobile phone companies are providing other solutions which actually are not perfect and are kind of delaying tactics meanwhile people are dying. This is the only solution, until and unless this is done, the crimes will continue.
It is pertinent to mention here that Siraj Kassam Teli raised this serious issue in front of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif during meetings held at Governor House on 3rd September 2013 and 10th July, 2014 while the same demand was once again made when prime minister visited Karachi to attend KCCI Export Trophy Awards on March 14, 2014.
” 
” 
” 
” 
