ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications on Wednesday proposed in their meeting that the government cooperate with Twitter management so that information on fake accounts can be detected.

The meeting was held here at Parliament House on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Senator Rubina Khalid and was attended by Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Kalsoom Parveen, Abdur Rehman Malik, Dr. Ashok Kumar, Taj Muhammad Afridi, Dr. Shehzad Waseem, Faisal Javed Khan, IT&T Secretary, Member PTA, Director Cyber Crimes FIA, Member IT and officials from the ministry among others.

While addressing NADRA database data theft for the registration of SIM cards on fake credentials, the use of illegal exchanges in the country, the Committee was not satisfied with PTA’s response and noted that, despite new biometric systems and better surveillance, the problem is far from being resolved.

The ministry was directed to hold a meeting in which PTA, FIA and NADRA were included and report to the committee within a week.

The Committee also instructed PTA to refer the case of the use of derogatory remarks and character defamation of Dua Mangi by social media users to FIA, and to set an example by identifying the persons involved and giving them strict punishment for offense under section 21 of the 2016 Electronic Crimes Prevention Act.

The Committee expressed disappointment at having brought the PTA rules to the cabinet without consulting the committee, following its earlier instructions, and recommended that the rules be brought to committee.

The briefing on the Digital Pakistan Program was postponed and it was agreed that to get an all-encompassing briefing for all stakeholders who have worked on the program to be called at the same time.