BlackBerry to exit Pakistan over security issues

BlackBerry has finally confirmed it would close down operations in Pakistan. The announcement was made via the company's official Inside BlackBerry blog by Marty Beard, chief operating officer at BlackBerry.

In its official statement, the company blamed the Pakistani government, which was demanding complete access into its secure BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic, which also included every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. Indeed, security and privacy were the principles of the Canadian company's services, and it was therefore understood that the best thing to do was to move out.

The official post from Inside Blackberry stated: ''After November 30, BlackBerry will no longer operate in Pakistan. While we regret leaving this important market and our valued customers there, remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users' privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make.''

In July, the government notified mobile phone operators that BlackBerry's BES servers would no longer be allowed to operate in the country from December ''for security reasons.''

The truth was that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, which included every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. However,  BlackBerry would not comply with that sort of directive, as it did not believe in granting open access to our customers' information and had never done this anywhere in the world.