against illegal SIMs to deal with terrorism in the country, claimed the telecom officials.
Over the past few weeks, several franchises of mobile phone operators and retail shops were raided in Karachi, Kotri, Kashmore, Guddu, Hyderabad, Dadu, Nawabshah, Matli, Tando Allahyar and Tando Adam, while a number of retailers were abducted, they added.
“It has become a routine that the LEAs raid retailers’ shops and confiscate their biometric verification systems and SIMs,” said a retailer.
He said the LEAs claim that these dealers were involved in the illegal sale of SIMs. This shows how little they know about the system, he added.
“It is unclear whether the government wants to get rid of terrorism or the heavy foreign direct investment in the telecommunication sector.”
The retailer said that harassing the dealers would not help counter terrorism but it would, instead, scare away the investors.
Current measures of the LEAs against dealers and people associated with telecommunication companies are setting a wrong precedent, said a branch manager of a leading cellular company.
“The efforts of the LEAs are establishing that the communication sector of the country is facilitating terrorism. This would jeopardise the sophisticated culture of this sector and people will lose trust in the mobile companies that are as patriotic as any Pakistani,” said an official of another telecom company.
He asked how the LEAs could detain people on the pretext that they were selling illegal SIMs in the presence of a highly monitored and regulated SIM selling system.
“These threatening efforts of the LEAs are simply against the basic rights of the people because there is no legislation in this regard in the country yet.”
A source in the telecom industry said the government should not leave this very important sector at the mercy of the LEAs because it would prove highly dangerous for the investment in this sector as well as the people associated with it.
“If there are any flaws in the system, it is the responsibility of the government and mobile companies, and the dealers should not be held accountable for that.”
These measures of the LEAs will have a bad impact on the investment of billions of dollars in the sector, which is already complying with all the security requirements, added the source.