KABUL - CEO Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday called on all Afghans to look to the future and embrace advances in the telecommunication sector and to stop seeing themselves as being behind the times.

In addition, Abdullah called on government to speed up the process of issuing Identity Cards so that the next elections will be less fraught with problems.

This would ensure no one voted more than once, he said.

He said that electronic ID cards "are essential and that this is a very important issue.

"I hope that practical steps are taken very soon in this regard."

Through the proper use of information technology we will be able to ensure smooth election processes in future, he said.

Addressing a press conference to mark World Telecommunication and Information Society Day – which is celebrated on May 17 – Abdullah also urged the Ministry of Telecommunications to take urgent action against unregistered sim cards for mobile phones which he said insurgents were using in their efforts to destabilize the country.

He said government needs to collect these cards and eradicate the practice of people having unregistered cards.

This year, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention – and the formation of the first International Telecommunication Union. The day is celebrated around the world each year to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the internet and other communication technologies (ICT) can bring to people.

Telecommunications is however often a challenge in Afghanistan. Just last week, Kabul's Internet crashed leaving most residents and businesses without service for up to four hours.

This was the second time in as many weeks that the city had experienced an outage. The previous outage came after a point along the fiber optic cable - which provides Internet service to Kabul – was blown up in an IED blast in Nangarhar.

Fingers have often been pointed at the Taliban in the past for such incidents and for also demanding money from Internet Service Providers and telecommunications companies in order to safeguard their installations – particularly in more remote areas. (Tolonews)