The misuse of illegal SIMs is deeply linked to crime and militancy in Pakistan.
KARACHI: As expected, the prime minister’s recent announcement to block all ‘unregistered’ SIMs went completely unheeded. As the vague announcement did not clarify when or what SIM would be considered as ‘unregistered’, everyone thought it best to ignore the statement till something more specific was agreed upon.
The misuse of illegal SIMs is deeply linked to crime and militancy in Pakistan. Regrettably, the PTA has failed to control and link each SIM with a specific owner. Estimates of illegal SIMs vary between five to 20 million. Conducting a short snap survey on five persons sitting in one room, we found that three had more SIMs shown by PTA records as compared to what they actually possessed and two had fewer SIMs than what was reflected in the PTA records. One can safely conclude that there are gross errors in PTA’s records, in terms of SIMs and their legitimate owners — despite the fact that this information and control is vital to Pakistan’s fight against crime and militancy.
As the PTA is itself on a slippery wicket, it has not been able to exercise sufficient control over the ‘greedy’ telecom companies and, at times, it appears that the two operate hand in glove. Can the government get more serious on this issue, revamp the PTA and make sure it can force the companies to block every SIM that cannot be proven to belong to a specific individual. Serious action would allow for only one SIM per person and create a positive linkage between an individual, CNIC, SIM and IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity).
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2013.
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