The Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecom, which met with Senator Palwasha Khan in the chair on Wednesday, was told that one of the biggest issues in Chitral was slow internet speed. Speaking on the occasion, Senator Talha Mahmood said that as soon as the sun went down in Chitral, mobile phone signals also disappeared. “Those telecom towers, which are functional during the daytime, must also remain functional at nighttime.”

The senator said that despite the fact that the Ministry of IT had billions of funds, still the internet issue persisted in Chitral. The committee asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) officials to give a briefing on the situation in Lower and Upper Chitral with respect to internet speed. Secretary IT told the committee that optical fiber project had been conceived for Chitral under the Universal Service Fund (USF), while the USF CEO said that if the areas facing internet issue were identified, these would be included in future projects.

Senator Palwasha, on the occasion, suggested the formation of a sub-committee for the resolution of mobile phone and internet services issues in far-flung areas of the country, which the committee accepted and appointed Senator Saadia Abbasi as its convener. It was revealed during the meeting that competition rules of the telecom sector had not been framed for the last 30 years. Senator Afnanullah pointed out that several companies in the world had ties to Israel.

“Therefore, in the current situation, there is a need to take security issues very seriously,” he asserted. The senator further said that cameras installed in and around the GHQ and other important locations must be removed. “These cameras are now becoming a security risk,” he opined. The committee also took up for discussion the issue of cyber- attacks on different private TV channels of the country.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)