Ground Report

CHITRAL: Poor performance of Pakistan Tele Communication Company Limited causing of great nuisance and increasing tension of its consumers. Telephone line often remains dead during working hours. Besides of fault due to noise and disturbance in line consumers can not listen voice of other person who calling them from outside and even within the district. As well as telephone line disconnecting at least 5 times a hour causing for disconnecting of internet and telephonic conversation with family members and friends. A number of consumers talking to this scribe complained that they have already registered their complaints on 1218 and were assured by PTCL authority for remedy of this fault within 24 hours but despite that no line staff of PTCL checked the line nor they visited consumers home for rectify the problem. It was also revealed by consumers that some line staff of PTCL draws their salary but they not working personally and has hired private people for maintenance of line on behalf of themselves giving them some rumination to them. Due to continue problem and disturbance in telephone line not only journalists facing great hardships due to disconnecting of internet and defaulting line for fax machine as a result they can not sent their news items etc to their respective originations timely . But businessmen (traders, shopkeepers) and domestic consumers also facing lot problems due to continue fault in their telephone line.  Due to continue fault in telephone line consumers not only facing wastage of time but they also facing loss of money disconnecting of internet causing for great charges.

In this connection when this scribe contacted acting SDO of PTCL Bakht Baidar he replied that you should to use VPTCL for interment because most of our staff were retired from service under golden hand shakes policy and we facing great shortage of staff as well as equipment and material. He said that we time and again have reminded our authorities for solving this problem and we trying for its remedy but due to acute shortage of staff we facing  great problems.

President Legal Aid Forum for Human Rights (LAFH) Abdul Nasir talking from United Nation (USA) who attending UN Session for indigenous people complained that he continuously trying to contact his family members in Chitral from America  and to talked them but due to faulty telephone line he failed to do so and thus he suffering badly in abroad. He demanded from high ups of PTCL for posting of expert and technical staff to Chitral to repair the faulty lines immediately and to solve public problem. He also warned that in case of not repairing the line they have preserved the rights to  knock at the court of justice  against PTCL for their failure in providing best service to its consumers.