identity records of the subscribers. The industry has also spent Rs140 million on BVS awareness campaign.
The new SIMs sales by the cellular mobile operators remained suspended for the three months (mid-January to mid-April) during the BVS operation.
Secretary General Information Communication and Technology Think Tank Mudassar Jehangir said it is very unfortunate that scammers are still able to befool and deceive innocent people while making a mockery of biometric SIM verification system.
“Though PTA has a specific online form to address the consumer complaint no considerable punishment has been awarded to anyone as yet,” Jehangir said.
“In fact, the affected consumers never get response from the authority even after months.”
He said lack of action from the authority has encouraged the mafia, which works in connivance with the officials working at cellular companies.
The PTA official said the authority has revamped its complaint handling mechanism for mobile companies, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited and other telecom operators.
He added that a subscriber could file a complaint with the relevant operator and if the complaint is not addresses s/he could call the PTA call centre, which is working under the consumer protection directorate to take appropriate action as per the regulations.
Jehangir advised the PTA to set up a system to give exemplary punishments to people after thorough investigation so that no one could ever use the communication services for illegal activities.
He further said CNIC (computerised national identity card) found in such scams should be blacklisted and no new SIM should be issued against such a CNIC for at least one year. He added that the punishments should be publicised through media.
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