Being a member of the International Telegraph Union (ITU) Pakistan cannot close telegram services without the prior permission of this organisation. Similarly, PTCL would have to inform the armed forces, courts, banks, national and international institutions before its closure because these agencies are still using this system for calling soldiers, approval or rejection of clemency appeals, court orders etc.
The GM conference has recommended for the closure of telegram services instead of improving and modernising this system to meet the requirements of the 21st century. Now telegrams to rural areas or small tows are being delivered by post, which takes three to four days. Similarly, many teleprinter circuits were closed permanently like Sialkot, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Faisalabad, Rahimyar Khan, Sahiwal, Okara, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Larkana, Bunnu, Kohat, Sargodha, Mianwali, Attock, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Chakwal, Mandi Bahauddin, Nawabshah, Bhakkar, Dera Ismail Khan, Loaralai, Kalat etc and telegrams are being sent by postal services for the last five years. Resultantly, this system had lost the credibility of the people and the agencies.
President & CEO of PTCL Junaid Iqbal Khan has asked all the general managers to modernise telegraphic system and install the computers in all the telegraph offices for quick transmission of messages at home and abroad but his instructions were neither followed nor considered as weighty.
All the developed countries were giving due importance to the telegraphic system to approach those people, who had no facility of phone or other communication means .