ISLAMABAD - The tall claims of government have been negated by the frequent use of unauthorised SIMs across the country with cellular companies failing to show any compliance. Despite repeated assertions by the Chairman Senate's Standing Committee on Interior Senator Talha Mehmood to eradicate the use of unregistered SIMs and strict action against those cellular companies that fail to show compliance with the governmental directives, the use of unauthorised SIM is increasing instead of being decreased. Time and again Senator Talha, with towering claims and authoritative statements in his press conferences, had claimed that mobile companies are all set to block unregistered SIMs. Moreover, the Senator had observed on numerous occasions that unauthorised SIMs have led to increase dangerous crimes, including robberies and frauds, therefore, it was necessary to purge the cellular networks from the growing menace. The details of a press conference addressed by the Senator in June this year revealed that cellular companies had blocked a total of around 3.2 million mobile SIM's. Talha had claimed that Warid Telecom had blocked 640,000 SIMs, Mobilink 198,5000 SIMs, Telenor 155,000 SIMs, U-Fone 240,000 while Zong had blocked 212,000 SIMs. Moreover, the Chairman had informed the media in the same press conference that he had a meeting with the Chief Executive Officers (CEO's) of all the cellular companies who had assured him of their full support and cooperation to block the bogus SIM cards. However, the frequent sale and purchase of the unregistered SIMs has been reported across the country. Well-placed sources in cellular companies told this scribe that the customers' complaints related to obnoxious calls and harassment by unknown callers are rapidly increasing. The sources further unveiled that when such SIMs are tracked, they are found to be unregistered. "Customers keep on registering their complaints to us and report that they are being harassed by some unknown callers, but we can't help them as these callers operate from fake numbers," said an employee of a prominent cellular company seeking anonymity. "All we can do is to block those SIMs that are involved in the making of obnoxious calls. But that doesn't solve the problem as perpetrators can buy new SIMs," he added while mentioning that female callers mostly register complaints related to harassment and obscenity. Another employee in the marketing department of the same company confirmed that unregistered SIM's are being sold at countless outlets in the twin cities. "Usually, the small road side stalls are selling unregistered SIMs," he revealed, adding that the uncertified SIM cards of all the cellular networks are available in the market. Meanwhile, a cellular subscriber visited TheNation to report that he is repeatedly being harassed by an unknown caller using an unregistered number 0331 5459256. He had lodged a complaint with the help line of the cellular company and the specified number was temporarily blocked. "However, after a while I'm being harassed again from the same number. These companies and their officials talk big but do nothing," he deplored. It is appropriate to mention that the deadline to block the unauthorised SIM's, as given by Senator Talha, was May 21. Later, the date was extended to June and then to July 31. The deadline was further extended to August, which has again been postponed. TheNation tried to contact Senator Talha Mehmood for his comments but he was not receiving calls on his cell phone.