Members Of Standing Committee On IT & Telecom Expressed Serious Concerns Over Their Fake Accounts

The National Assembly Standing committee on IT & Telecom on Wednesday expressed serious concerns over their fake accounts on social media while saying that a number of fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter are being run on their names.

Members Of Standing Committee On IT & Telecom Got Angry On Their Fake Accounts

The committee met with Ali Khan Jadoon in the chair here on Wednesday, where it was briefed on working and performance of the Ministry and its attached departments.

The committee members registered a number of complainants and expressed serious concerns over fake accounts while saying that several fake accounts have been operating on their accounts/ids.

Committee member Naz Baloch said that several fake accounts were being run on her identity. Aftab Hussain and Ali Gohar said that five accounts were being run on their identities but do not know who was operating it.

IT Ministry officials said that facebook and twitter are not coming in the legal ambit of Pakistan and even the Supreme Court directives do not apply on them. Several countries have signed the agreement but Pakistan has no agreement with any social media company.

The committee summoned the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in the next meeting for a briefing on the matter.

The committee was further informed that the government is expecting to generate $1.3 billion from the renewal of three mobile licenses, which are going to expire this year.

“During 2013 to 2019, telecom sector generated around $19 billion, where $5.4 billion was deposited to the national exchequer”, said Member Telecom Mudassir Hussain while briefing the Committee. Further, the revenue of the telecom sector stood at 480 billion in 2018.

Briefing the committee, Member Telecom said that spectrum license of three mobile operators is going to expire in 2019 including two in May and one in October. The government is expecting to generate around $1.3 billion of revenue from the renewal of these licenses.

Minister for IT said that Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that Pakistan is producing around 25000 IT graduates every year where only 3000 get jobs. Other regional countries have left Pakistan far behind in IT education. He further said that the government is considering establishing a regulatory authority on IT education while saying that setting the right direction is imperative.

IT Minister further said that the establishment of the Cyber Security Authority is also under consideration. “We want mobile manufacturing in Pakistan”, said the minister, adding that government wants to provide inexpensive mobile phones in the country”, he added.

According to the briefing, Rs 7.12 billion was allocated in the budget 2018-19 for IT Ministry and its attached departments. The government had allocated Rs 3.046 billion in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2018-19, but it was cut by 53 percent i.e. to Rs 1.597 billion and further revised to Rs 1.448 billion.

Dot (.) pk domain was not Pakistan property, and it was an American company. After hectic efforts, two years ago, dot (.) Pakistan domain was achieved from the international forum. Now the whole data is being hosted at NTDC.

Special Communications Organization (SCO) briefed the committee on Fibre Optic Cable Project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The officials informed the committee that the first phase of 820 km of Optic Fibre Cable has been completed.

It is the first communication link, the database and control will be in Pakistan. China-Pakistan fiber optic project is the first independent project. Before this, all the communications projects have connectivity with India. Due to internet connectivity with India, data leak was also a threat.

The parliamentary panel was further informed that the number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 64.57 million. The number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 156.92 million by the end of February. During the last five years, 151 percent growth was registered in the IT sector of Pakistan.