ISLAMABAD - Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology noted with concern that the cell phone companies were introducing such packages and incentives for the users, which clearly violate country's social and ethical norms. The Committee directed PTA to take appropriate steps and immediately ban publicizing such packages that flout the social norms and customs of the society. It observed that despite repeated assurances the mobile phone companies and their franchises continue to violate the rules and regulations laid down by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for issuance of SIMs. The Committee met at the Parliament House today under the Chairmanship of Senator Abdul Raziq for discussing the procedure adopted by PTA regarding issuance of new mobile phone SIMs. Members of the Committee pointed out that a lately incidents of kidnapping for ransom, theft and car lifting etc. were on rise because of undocumented and unverified mobile phone connections. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abdul Raziq Khan presented several hundred mobile SIMs of different cellular companies and said that all these SIMs had been purchased from the market without submitting any documents. The Committee disagreed with the PTA on the system introduced for the verification of new cell phone connections and said that several flaws still existed in the system, which need to be rectified. It further directed the PTA that in case of violation, the cell phone operator should be penalized instead of the franchiser or the retailer. The Committee appreciated the growth in the cell phone industry however, reiterated not to compromise on the national security and vowed to make all out efforts to bring improvements in the system in the best national interests. Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for Information Technology agreed with the Committee that there were several lacunas in the existing verification system and assured that efforts would be made to streamline the things at appropriate level. While discussing the procedure adopted by the M/o IT for nomination of academic nominee in which KIIT was nominated in 2006, the Senate Committee directed the Ministry not to violate the laid down procedure as the ones nominated in 2006 were not based on merit. Earlier, Chairman PTA informed that policy directives had been issued to make the verification process simpler and more effective and all sales were being made as per the guidelines of PTA. He also explained the procedure for the verification of the mobile SIMs and its physical demonstration. He said the verification system had been deployed between the mobile companies and NADRA and the service agreement between NADRA and CMTOs was under review. He assured that all out efforts would be made to clean this profitable sector of the black sheep. The meeting was attended by Senators Muhammad Amjad Abbas, Sardar Mehmud Khan, Saleem Saifullah Khan, Engr. Rashid Ahmed, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, Rukhsana Zuberi, Muhammad Azam Sawati and Dr. Javiad Laghari besides senior officials of M/o IT, PTA and cell phone companies