Perhaps a phone call to the Pakistan Telecom Authority may help the TRC design a practical solution. Unregistered SIMs that are not connected to specific human beings/legal entities are a problem in any country. Operators should not issue such SIMs, in Pakistan or in Sri Lanka. Focused action on these SIMs, if any, will yield better results for security than taking photographs of millions of people, as Mobitel plans.
State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan
The initiative taken by Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior to curb unregistered Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) Card culture has resulted in blockage of eight million unidentified connections, said Senator Talha Mehmood, Chairman of the committee, here on Friday.
He said that the CEOs (of all the mobile companies) had informed him that their business was adversely affected by the action taken by the committee. The CEO’s also handed over the CDs of 8 million unregistered SIMs for verification, he added. The CDs had been handed over to law enforcing agencies, he further said.
Out of these 8 million unregistered SIMs, 1.2 million had been reissued after proper verification and documentation. Whereas, 0.8 million blocked SIMs were given a dead line of July 25 for verifications, he added. He said that in order to find the culprits behind the distribution of unregistered SIMs, special teams raided across the country.
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