PTA Carries Out Inspection to Confirm Blocking of Un-Verified SIMs

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority  has started to confirm blocking of unverified SIMs by inspecting the Home Location Registers (HLRs) of the Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs).

PTA team headed by Director General (Enforcement) visited CMOs’ offices on Thursday and Friday to confirm the blocking of SIMs that could not be re-verified beyond September 2013. During the visit, progress made by CMOs on identifying and blocking “not re-verified” SIMs was checked by PTA. CMOs assured PTA to continue their efforts against identity theft wherein SIMs were activated without the knowledge of CNIC holders.

It is pertinent to mention here that PTA has set up a system called “SIM Information System – 668” in order to ensure that the SIMs are registered against the CNIC of the authorized (legitimate) user. A customer can get the count of each mobile company’s SIMs registered against his/her CNIC by sending his/her CNIC number to short code “668”.  In case of any data mismatch, the customer can remove extra SIMs against his/her CNIC by requesting respective operator.

Users of all such disowned SIMs are then approached by respective mobile operator to get the SIM registered against his/her CNIC.  Otherwise, the same is blocked after 15 days’ time period. General public is requested to support PTA and CMOs by using this system and disown extra SIMs registered on their CNICs without their consent.

PTA is following the policy guidelines of the government on blocking and verification of SIMs. It is hoped that the issue of un-authorized SIMs will be resolved through a joint effort by all stakeholders including the general public.

Punjab Police To Start Electronic FIR Registration and Cyber Crime Prevention Unit: Pakistanixpro

Bilal Javed, Director Information, CTD, Punjab Police

When someone think of Punjab Police what comes into mind is couple of aliens sitting just to make things adverse for general public.

I believe things are no more the same, few good men inside are willing to change old draconian ‘Thanaa’ culture.

At e-Governance exhibition recently held at Arfa Technology Park under the umbrella of PITB, we happened to hear few good things about Punjab Police from Mr. Bilal Javed who is currently heading the IT cell of the department. According to him there are following major initiatives that government has planned to reshape the police department.

100 model Police Stations

PROMISE is the name of project which is electronically connecting 100 model police station with each other in Punjab. In the first phase, police department is installing the CCTV cameras to monitor each and every activity inside a police station from our central monitoring hub. Soon we will introduce the E-Filing system of First Information Report (FIR) through a web enabled interface. This will get rid of old error-prone culture and expedite the process for general public without any hassle.

Cyber Crime Prevention and Investigation Unit

For the prevention of Electronic Crimes, police department is going to introduce Cyber Crime Prevention and Investigation Unit. The unit will track and monitor websites, blogs and other social networks for anti-social and anti-country content. It will also provide shield to the online transactions. The unit will also monitor the mobile phone communication and for this, department has asked the federal government for their permission and required protocol.

Electronic Attendance

We have introduced the biometrics for the attendance of all our personnel in Police and we have linked it with the payroll system that will eventually eradicate the problem of ‘Ghost Employees’ in the Police Dept.

Radio Frequency Identification Technology

Through Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) we are monitoring all the assets of Punjab Police including vehicles, ammunition and other belonging of Police so that only authorized personnel could establish the right to use them.

We are going to install these chips in the private vehicles all across the province which will let us monitor them at any point of time. We are installing the RFID readers at all 50 entry/exit points of Lahore along with the main arteries where these e-readers will help us control the menace of terrorist activities in case a vehicle has been stolen and is intended to be used for any such crime. We will connect the vehicle with Excise and Taxation department that will help government to eliminate the defaulters of token tax.