Afghan SIMs roaming blocked in Pakistan to stem terror

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the Afghan SIMs roaming in order to stop terrorism.
Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Ismail Shah told the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior on Friday that talks between the Pakistani and Afghan intelligence agencies had remained successful.
Ismail said the Afghan mobile towers on the border had stronger signals due to which Afghan SIMs were used in the Pakistani border areas.He said a delegation from Afghanistan will soon visit Pakistan for further talks. He said Pakistan had roaming agreements with other countries except India. He said the Afghan SIMs will be useless in Pakistan, while the Pakistani SIMs will work in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Senator Rehman Malik said the security clearance system of national and foreign employees of mobile companies must improve. He said a frequency operation in-charge of a mobile company was the mastermind of the Safoora tragedy.
The PTA chairman said the employees were checked under legal limits. He said Pakistan-made technology on the pattern of WhatsApp had been introduced which will improve the monitoring system and the enemy will not be able to interfere with our system.
Rehman Malik said educational and research websites on YouTube should be opened by using the latest technology. Senator Shahi Syed said law and order had improved after blocking of fake SIMs in Karachi.
The PTA chairman said five million SIMs had been blocked so far. He said the PTA had no link with Bol, adding that Pemra was dealing with the matter. Ismail Shah said the PTA was also taking a strong action against the grey traffic.