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The discussions and debates about an apparent slow down in the Pakistani telecom sector are in full bloom these days. While the telecom growth has certainly taken a nosedive and indicators prove this assumption but what would be its impacts on a common Pakistani and more importantly on thousands of people who depend on telecom sector for their bread and butter? This is a question that needs to be answered as we mostly look at the bigger picture with telecom professionals in mind.The increased call tariffs and heavy taxation on balance uploads/mobile cards has badly affected the vendors. I recently had a discussion with some of mobile cards vendors in Islamabad and they opined that their sales have seen a slump of almost 25%-30%. Same is the case with cell phone vendors as the prices are climbing due to devaluation of Pakistani rupee. The decline in business has resulted in job cuts in some instances. These guys get very nominal salaries but still were earning something for their families. If the telecom growth comes to a stagnation point then a massive unemployment among these folks is a writing on the wall.We don’t have exact statistics of people working in telecom related professions (am referring to vendors, cell phone technicians and not telecom professionals) but rough estimates put their numbers at around 100,000 - 120,000. In most of the cases, these people are sole bread winners of their family thus the number of affectees of telecom meltdown will be in millions if there is a major telecom boom burst in Pakistan.There will not be a total crash in Pakistani telecom sector but the growth will remain on a lower end. This means that with the passage of time at least half of these vendors will have to close their businesses resulting in unemployment of 50,000 to 60,000 workers and financial crisis for half a million people (considering the impacts on their families).Can we avoid this from happening? I guess we can’t as the process of ‘natural selection’ is necessary in the telecom sector due to its over saturation. The telecom boom provided job opportunities for thousands of illiterate and semi-illiterate guys and it still is quite common that a guy who has nothing to do lands in a mobile shop. But that would not be the case in future. We have to think some alternatives about these folks otherwise expect a rise in the already high crime rates.