As part of its counter-terrorism strategy, the government has once again turned the guns towards mobile technology. However, the industry players and experts are sceptical of the way the matter of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards is being handled.
According to media reports, the government has warned the industry of a crackdown in case they fail to block 500,000 illegal SIMs by Sunday, December 28.
These statements come in the aftermath of the December 16 terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Over 130 pupils were killed in the tragic event, dubbed the country’s darkest hour.
The government has yet to come up with any official directions, but statements from the interior ministry have raised fresh concerns for the telecom sector. This is because all the SIM cards used by the terrorists were issued through the Biometric Verification System (BVS) – a foolproof system for the registration of new SIMs the government itself suggested.
In the past, the government pushed the industry to block only unregistered or illegal SIMs. This time, it has asked the industry to verify the entire subscriber base, about 140 million, in 28 days.
It may be the culprit for the country’s security apparatus, however, the same mobile technology helped the US trace Osama bin Laden, say industry sources.
The US intelligence officials’ decade-long search ended after Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti – the main courier and right-hand of bin Laden – took a call from a friend, which helped American forces trace bin Laden and eventually kill him in his Abbottabad residence on May 2, 2011.
In fact, the same technology helped the Pakistan Army tap into terrorists’ conversations as they communicated during the December-16 siege, said an official requesting anonymity. “It helped the army trace their locations and execute the operation more efficiently.”
The masterminds of most terrorist attacks in Pakistan were traced through the calls made to, and from their cellular SIMs, whether registered or unregistered, according to Parvez Iftikhar, former managing director of the Universal Services Fund and an expert on Information and Communications Technology.
Iftikhar acknowledged that registered SIMs help security agencies by giving a head start in investigation. He, however, added that terrorists can be traced even through unregistered SIMs by obtaining call records.
Responding to a question, he said verifying the entire user base in a limited time will be a hassle, if not impossible. It will be costly for the telecom sector that has already invested billions towards this matter.
The telecom industry spent Rs22 billion in implementing the 789 Service, a SIM registration system suggested by the government in 2009. They have already spent Rs2 billon on BVS, say industry sources, and this will increase with more devices being installed.
Telecom operators are commercial entities but the introduction of BVS slowed down their sales, Iftikhar says. Verifying the entire user base cost them a lot, he says. NADRA charges Rs23 from the operators per SIM activation or verification of user’s record.
“The government should at least compensate the operators by reducing the costs. Lower taxes – the highest in the region – can be one option,” Iftikhar said.
Telecom sources say they are helping the government and security forces in every way possible but insist that the matter should be looked at in a holistic manner to make sure the goal is achieved.
“An increasing number of governments have recently introduced mandatory registration of prepaid SIM card users, primarily as a tool to counter terrorism and support law enforcement efforts. However, to date there is no evidence that the mandatory registration leads to a reduction in crime,” says a November 2013 whitepaper by Group Speciale Mobile Association, a global body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 26th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (3)
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Easiest way to counter illegal sims:
Announce for everyone to re-verify their sims against NIC's by a certain time frame. Block all the sims not registered by that time against an NIC.
Simple
The verification of SIMs must be verified if we want to save lives....period. Saving Human lives must always be a priority for the govt, see other countries of the World who faced similar problems, but have overcome with will to fight it tooth & nail. It is no shame if we take a cue from them.
The mindless distribution of SIMs across Pakistan by these cellular companies is one of the worst bad governance example in this country.
PTA officials should be accountable and investigation should be carried out against PTA to review their policies, standards and procedures for the telecommunication industry in last 10 years to check how much benefit they provided to these companies and how many GIFTS they received from cellular companies.