An internet start-up company, called Cogilent Solutions, based in Islamabad, Pakistan and which runs a very successful job portal in the country, known as BrightSpyre, has been raided by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and staff of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on allegations of using illegal voice over IP (VoIP).
Cogilent is one of the first companies in the world to launch an integrated Voice Resume system based on VoIP technologies. Companies such as TRG are using their solution to hire quality talents for their call centres.
On Tuesday December 4, around noon, FIA and PTA walked into their office, seized all servers, mobiles and everything under the pretext that the material was being used for illegal VoIP communications.
CEO locked up
Even when explained that they are only solution providers and not into any illegal call termination, nobody listened to them. The small IT company based out of the Software Technology Park, Islamabad, was forced to shut down. Cogilent CEO Faisal Chohan was transferred to a jail and put behind bars.
The Pakistan ICT Policy Monitor Network, an initiative sponsored by APC-member BytesForAll, was informed of this mishap by the members of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) and the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK).
In another shocking development, it was discovered that the PTA/FIA duo had raided the wrong office and premises. In the form filed by the FIA against Cogilent, the IP address 203.99.57.224/29 is mentioned as the culprit from where the alleged illegal activity was taking place. However, upon close inspection, it was discovered that these internet protocols were not used by Cogilent Solutions at any point in time. They were never even assigned to them.
Instead, the stated IP address is in use by some other individual in Pakistan. This heavy-handed intervention on behalf of the authorities has pulled innocent people into this sorry state of affairs and severely damaged the reputation of the young software venture.
Trauma caused by raid turns into tragedy
The matter took a very tragic turn when news was made public that the wife of Cogilent’s CEO – who was expecting a baby – suffered severe trauma, leading up and resulting in the death of her newborn baby.
As if things were not extreme enough at this point, those in positions of responsibility – who could help clean up this mess – travelled abroad. This includes the Chairman of the PTA who preferred to go to India, rather than solving the case, even though he knew that a serious mistake had been committed by the PTA.
We at the network were able to mobilize public support. With some discussion, Pakistan’s ICT Industry issued following joint charter of demand and met with the Federal Minister for IT to seek his help resolve the matter.
Civil society organisations retaliate with clear demands
The members of the Pakistan ICT Policy Monitor Network quickly decided to launch a campaign and request for public action against this oppression committed by the state: http://pakistanictpolicy.bytesforall.net/?q=en/node/210
Also, a number of groups have formulated a series of demands which they plan to work towards. They request that:
– Faisal Chohan, the CEO of Cogilent Solutions, be released immediately.
– Disciplinary action against officials of the PTCL and the PTA who lodged the fake complaint and made an innocent professional to remain in jail for many days.
– Compensation be attributed to Cogilent Solutions for the loss of reputation and business.
– Compensation be given to Faisal Chohan and his family for the suffering, agony, and mental torture to his wife that has led to the death of his to-be-born child.
– Policy Directives from Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) to the PTA be immediately issued in the following way:
- Issue an order to allow inter-office VoIP and PC-to-phone use for non-commercial use. This would be in continuation of the PTA’s Determination of 16 November 2002 on IP Telephony-Net2Phone Unblocking of Web Sites.
- Re-define raiding mechanisms by the PTA/FIA. The PTCL, as a complainant, should not be part of any raid. Joint Industry Nomination by the MoIT and the industry’s representative should accompany any future raids.
- Re-define VoIP’s office-to-office policy in consultation with the industry.
What next?
Decision makers, including the Ministry of IT are still indifferent, while the entire IT industry in Pakistan is in a state of shock. Recognising its mistake, the PTA has issued a letter withdrawing the crime case against Cogilent and its CEO.
At the time of writing, Faisal Chohan is still in Jail and on December 18, 2006, when Chohan’s case was presented to the court, the judge again refused his bail on various technical issues pertaining to court procedures.
Reacting to this, Jehan Ara of the P@SHA association wrote: "If Faisal was the son of someone in power, and was not even innocent, wouldn’t he have been out of jail a long time ago? In fact he probably wouldn’t have been in jail at all. There is anger, hurt, disbelief and frustration throughout the industry. One of our own has been, and is being treated, with total disregard for his rights. Where are the Human Rights activists, where is the media, where are the rulers and politicians whom we have appealed to? Don’t tell me that now – for once – our courts are suddenly independent? We have seen too much miscarriage of justice in the past to believe that an independent judiciary exists in our country".
Ara further said, that "a concerted campaign to bring everyone to their senses is now definitely required. We need to work on a strategy that will bring this story to the front page of every newspaper/magazine. We need this to be the subject of all talk shows on television. This now needs to become real and personal for everyone – and not just the ICT industry".
Blind use of authority, high-handedness of intelligence agencies, yawning gaps in policies and misleading rules and regulations are the lessons learned out of this saga.
Members of the Pakistan ICT Policy Monitor Network believe that now is high time for all stakeholders in the ICT arena in the country to join hands and strive together for people-friendly, people-centred ICT policies in Pakistan.
“We strongly believe that not everything is commercial in life. Human, social and business ethics, rights based approach to formulation of rules/regulations, and gauging its impacts on human development and local community should be the focus of future policy making,” declared the network.