The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom has given the Ministry of IT 15 days to consult telecom companies before notifying the telecom competition rules on its agenda.
Committee members also called for stricter internet controls for children under 16, after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman said the regulator receives about 500 social media complaints daily.
The committee met under the chairmanship of Senator Palwasha Khan. The PTA chairman told members that some countries have banned social media use for children under 16, and said he had met Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry to discuss setting an age limit for children’s use of social media.
The committee was briefed on outstanding dues from the privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and decided to hold a joint meeting with the Standing Committee on Privatisation to take up the matter.
It also took up an agenda item on the alleged sale of sensitive data of Pakistani officials abroad. Senator Kamran Murtaza told the meeting that the internet in Supreme Court had gone down and its links with the Quetta registry were not connecting.
The committee chairperson said complaints of disrupted internet services in Islamabad were being received, while the PTA chairman said the authority would brief the committee on internet services across the country within a month.
