Clearly, the ministry has no serious intention of blocking SIMs
KARACHI: 1) March 2013: All cell phone owners must undertake biometric verification of SIMs. — Interior Minister
2) December 16, 2014: All cell phone owners must undertake biometric verification of SIMs within 28 days. — Interior Minister
3) January 2015: All cell phone owners must undertake biometric verification of SIMs by February 26, 2015 and the date will not be extended. — Interior Minister
4) February 26, 2015: All cell phone owners must undertake biometric verification of SIMs by April 14, 2015 and the date will not be extended. — Interior Minister
5) April 28, 2015: All cell phone owners must undertake biometric verification of SIMs by May 15, 2015 and the date will not be extended. — Interior Minister
Clearly, the ministry has no serious intention of blocking SIMs. The extension of dates means that some people could continue to use non-verified SIMs, making the rest of the country vulnerable to crime, violence and militancy. Can one conclude that the interior ministry and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) are essentially facilitating and providing more and more ‘windows of opportunity’ to the militants in Pakistan? While the telecommunication companies have an obvious commercial interest in ‘not’ blocking the SIMs, what are the motives of the interior ministry and the PTA?
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2015.
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