The very title of this post should have given you the idea, it might even already have you shocked. Mobile Number Portability, a service that allowed customers of a particular cellular operator to shift their networks to other networks, will now be banned citing “National Security Threats” according to instructions given by Minister for Interior, Rehman Malik.

The Associated Press of Pakistan reports details of the meeting in the following words:

The meeting decided that in view of the grave complaints, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by the service providers is banned in future and anybody found violating should be booked under Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 as it is against the national security.

Anybody misusing, sending threatening emails or tampering with email address, mobile phone via SMS, MMS etc shall be dealt with under ATA and other relevant sections of law.

Although the PTA is yet to receive formal directives on this issue, can somebody please explain this to us, what does MNP have to do with the Anti-Terrorism act? Numbers are not ported out to other networks without proper verification and documentation.

This seems to be in continuation with the recent SMS filters ban the government was proposing that turn out to be an ultimate embarrassment for the whole nation.

Mobile Number Portability has allowed cellular operators to remain pro-active in Pakistan in ensuring their subscribers do not port-out to other competitors and provided a fair and competitive environment in the overall mobile communication industry in Pakistan.

With its ban, I fear operators will now feel relaxed that their customers will NOT have the option to port out, no matter where the service levels fall down to.

In the meantime, the internet community in Pakistan is abuzz with this news and reacting very negatively to this non-sense from the minister who seems to have nothing better to do these days and is hell bent upon rolling back the progress our telecom industry has gone through over the past decade.

Related News and Articles:

1 – Rehman Malik back with Tech-Blunders

2 – Concerns over Multiple SIMs and False IMEI’s

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