Previously, High Court Islamabad placed a ban on all Inami Schemes by all telecom service providers in Pakistan. It is to update here that Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld the decision of Islamabad High Court regarding the ban of all Inami Schemes by Pakistani telcos including Zong, Mobilink, Warid, Ufone and Telenor. With this judgment by Supreme Court of Pakistan, the issue of Inami Schemes has been concluded that was very long in pending. Now, the apex court has rules that no Inami Schemes can be offered by any telecom operator in Pakistan.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued a notice in May 2012 to all cellular operators of Pakistan in which it was mentioned that no telcos will have to stop their all SMS-based prize schemes. This notification was made in the favor of regulation as all SMS-based prize schemes are the violation of the Telecom Consumer Protection Regulation, 1999.
Later on, all telecom operators challenged this notice in Islamabad High Court (IHC) but the verdict was issued in the favor of PTA by court. After losing the case, telecom operators re-filled an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the decision of Islamabad High Court. Today, Supreme Court also passed judgment in favor of Islamabad High Court. From now on, cellular companies are directed to not to offer any type of Inaami Schemes to their customers.
On a research, industry sources also confirm that mobile phone companies used to make good revenues (Rs. 4-5 million per day per operator) from their offered inaami schemes. On the other hand, all such revenues were generated through customers who were attracted for big prizes that were difficult to win in real.
