PTA blocks 27.5m SIM cards as biometric verification process ends

Some 75.5 million active SIMs out of total 103 million SIMs were verified during the drive which ended on Friday

ISLAMABAD: After an intense campaign that ended on May 15, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said it had biometrically verified nearly 75.5 million subscriber identity modules (SIMs) and blocked around 27.5 million active SIMs.

According to a statement released on Saturday, the telecom regulatory authority said it had targeted verifcation of nearly 103 million SIMs through the biometric verification system (BVS) as part of the National Action Plan (NAP).

Read: Over 92m SIMs blocked since Jan 2015: PTA chief

However, the blocked SIMs can be activated once the owner can provide biometric verification at the respective cellular company’s office.

The PTA said that some 21 million SIMs had been verified as dormant, while 17 million had already been verified through the system between August 1, 2014 and January 12, 2015.

Read: Plan ready: PTA to verify SIMs of Afghan refugees

The latest verification campaign had started in January 2015 as part of NAP where the Ministry of Information Technology and PTA were tasked to carry-out verification.

Read: Biometric verification: PTA lays out guidelines for overseas Pakistanis

PTA said it is now seeking a third party audit of the entire exercise to verify its authenticity. In this regard, expression of interest (EoI) for hiring of a third party auditor had already been floated.