The business fraternity of the country and citizens from other walks of life had to face severe hardships in communication as cellular services remained suspended in 46 districts across the country on Thursday on the occasion of chehlum of Hazarat Imam Hussain (RA). Citizens expressed grave concerns over suspension of mobile services before the scheduled time of 08:00AM. Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, Faisalabad and many other cities had to face blockage of mobile phone services for security reasons on the chehlum. Mobile phone networks in different districts of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit, Azad Kashmir and South Waziristan Agency (SWA) also remained suspended to avoid terror bids. While the suspension of mobile networks posed an inconvenience to everyone, businessmen were the most affected. They urged the interior ministry to take solid steps to deal with the menace of terrorism instead of resorting to temporary actions such as suspending mobile phone services which was a short termed policy and played a little role in eliminating the problem.
