ISLAMABAD ( ABRAR MUSTAFA )
Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Dr. Syed Ismail Shah affirmed that 75.5 million Sims has been re-verified and 27.5 million Sims are blocked after completion of verification process. Dr. Shah said during exclusively talking with Telecoalert.com that all blocked Sims can only be activate after Biometric verification of these Sims.
In a startling revealation it has been revealed that around 8.5 million SIMs will be blocked soon. With SIM re-verification process now completed, PTA and telecos are now focusing towards those SIMs that are registered on a single CNIC. Telecos have issued multiple SIMs in the past to customers on single CNIC.
Though this was bought to attention when the plan for SIM re-verification was being made it was decided that this matter will be resolved later. Therefore PTA gave telecos the deadline of May 15th in a high level meeting that took place on 28th April. This meant that around 10 million SIMs were to be re-verified. According to a high ranking official at PTA, TelecoAlert.com has found that around 8.5 Million SIMs will be blocked as they have not been verified.
Moit add that the SIM re-verification drive through Biometric Verification System (BVS), initiated under the directions of National Action Plan, has been successfully completed. MOIT and PTA were tasked to carry-out verification of all existing SIMs through BVS in January 2015. The task which looked difficult initially as the previous governments failed to do despite demand by law enforcement agencies, was now could be made possible through all out support of relevant stakeholders and dedicated efforts of all particularly PTA, MOIT, MoI, the Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) and NADRA. The support provided by People of Pakistan made this process a success who participated in the re-verification process considering it to be a national cause.
During the course of the activity, MOIT and PTA undertook measures not only to make the process smooth and transparent but also to facilitate general public. Extensive awareness campaigns through SMS, electronic (TV & Radio) and digital media were run. In addition, an alternate verification process was deployed to facilitate old age, disabled and overseas Pakistanis.
The final deadline for completion of the exercise was April 12, 2015, however, a certain category (i.e. one SIM per CNIC per Operator and in continuous use for last two years) were allowed by the GoP to operate beyond this date. The deadline for the later category of SIMs was 15th May 2015 and CMOs were asked to block all such SIMs which could not be verified beyond this date. Accordingly, all unverified SIMs have been blocked. However, these SIMs can be unblocked by the owner by visiting any sale channel and performing successful biometric verification.
According to the final figures, out of target 103 Million active SIMs, 75.5 Million SIMs have been re-verified while 27.5 Million active SIMs have been blocked as of 15th May 2015. It is worth mentioning that Government asked CMOs to re-verify their complete subscribers’ bases irrespective of their current status i.e. active or dormant. In this regard, another 21 Million SIMs were verified from the dormant base while 17 Million SIMs were already verified through BVS between 1st August 2014 and 12th January 2015. New SIMs are only issued through the process of BVS.
After the conclusion of this major milestone, PTA is directed to carry-out a third party audit of the whole exercise to verify its authenticity. In this regard, Expression of Interest (EoI) for hiring of a third party auditor has already been floated. The complete exercise has been closely monitored by the, Minister of State on IT & Telecom, Chairman PTA and Member Compliance & Enforcement PTA, to ensure that the process concludes without any hindrance and is completed on time.
It is believed that the effects of the re-verification drive shall go a long way in ensuring a safer Pakistan.