Pakistan Mobile Telecommunications (Pvt) Ltd has reduced staff in Karachi, where its mobile telephones have been cut off for the best part of 15 months for security reasons, the company said. Pakistan Mobile, a joint venture of Motorola Inc and Saif Telecom Pvt Ltd, was forced to disconnect its subscribers in January 1995 after security forces said militants were abusing its digital cellular telephones, which are hard to monitor. The company, known locally as Mobilink, laid off 26 employees and relocated another 10 within Pakistan. It said it has not completely closed its operations in Karachi; Mobilink’s competitors, Cable & Wireless Plc subsidiary Paktel Ltd and Pakcom Ltd, a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular NV, have already cut back at their Karachi offices. Mobilink said it planned to invest $20m to expand and improve its service in Pakistan.
