By: Imran Ali Teepu and Khawar Ghumman
ISLAMABAD: Following up on its earlier ban on night-time and low-rate telephone packages, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has stopped cellphone operators from offering chat room services to users.
PTA authorities claimed they had taken the steps on the directives of the Supreme Court and insistence of legislators who argued that the services were being misused by the users, especially students. An adviser to the prime minister said the ban on night-time packages didn’t make any sense and should be lifted forthwith.
Adviser on Human Rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar criticised the PTA for imposing the ban in the name of protecting moral values.
Talking to Dawn, he said: “As an adviser on human rights, I have asked the PTA chairman to explain on what grounds he has directed mobile telephone companies to immediately stop their night-time packages. As far as my information is concerned, no clause of the PTA Act allows the chairman of the authority to assume powers of a morality enforcer. Hence, we sought a report from him within a week.”
He said the move was also against consumer rights of people “and it’s my right as an adviser to the prime minister on human rights to raise the issue. I will also talk to the prime minister.”
It may be recalled that the government is yet to lift the ban on YouTube which was put in place during the third week of September. The YouTube had refused to remove a blasphemous film made by an American amateur filmmaker that was available on the website. Of late, the government has also placed a ban on mobile number portability.
When asked, the PTA spokesperson, Malahat Rab, said the authority had directed all telephone companies to enforce the ban with immediate effect. She said the decision had been taken after receiving complaints from various quarters against the misuse of the almost free telephone packages. She said the PTA was yet to receive a formal reaction against the ban.
One operator said that “in late night our network is free and our generators at the base transceiver station (boosters or mobile towers) run on diesel 24/7 so our cost is going up. Since the network is free at these BTS during the night across Pakistan, we are facing a loss so we opted for such packages to benefit from the off-time in late hours.”
He claimed that packages were offered to the users across the world without facing such a ban. The PTA had written to the mobile phone operators on Tuesday about the ban on night-time telephone and text packages. On Wednesday evening, it also asked the companies to stop offering live chat forums.
A PML-Q legislator, Nosheen Saeed, however, says: “Are these mobile telephone operators offering telephone services or running other services to misguide young people?”
Ms Saeed has tabled a private member bill in the National Assembly to limit the night-time packages by amending the Pakistan Telecommunication Regulations Act of 1996. She wants cancellation of the operators’ licences in case they are found violating the code of conduct.
She alleged that that the phone companies were promoting immoral activities through such packages. An interior ministry official said legislators were pushing the government to block the late-night packages, claiming that teachers had started complaining about the attitude of children.
