ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) following the orders of the government has asked the mobile operators to start the process of re-verification of mobile SIMs cards and block 4.47 million unidentified SIMS as soon as possible if the subscribers do not verify their ownership.
A meeting was held in the interior ministry where PTA, mobile operators and NADRA officials were present. The ministry passed the orders in the meeting that the ownership of all the SIMS issued across Pakistan by any operator must be verified and unverified SIMS must be blocked.
The PTA following the orders of the interior ministry inquired Pakistan Mobile Database (PMD) Ltd about the total number of unverified SIMS. Authority directed the mobile operators to verify the identified SIMS or block otherwise.
It is pertinent to mention here that mobile SIMS verification process has been initiated long ago and still abovementioned figure is not verified.
As per the verification process, the subscribers are supposed to send a message containing CNIC number to 668 and in response a message is generated and sent to the subscriber telling him/her about the total number of SIMS issued in his/her name under different mobile operators.
If the subscriber differs with the information provided in the message, he is supposed to contact concerned company’s customer service centre and get those SIMS blocked those he think does not belong to him but are registered under his name. Otherwise it is considered that the data is correct and the subscribers is taking the ownership of all the SIMS.
Presently there are 4.47 million SIMS those have not sent any message to 668 so are considered unverified.
PTA’s spokesperson while talking to The Nation said that such people who never have sent message to 668 containing there CNIC number should do it as soon as possible as the SIMS will be blocked within very few days.
It is also pertinent to mention here that a total of 120 million SIMS exist in Pakistan and all others have been claimed to be re-verified by the mobile operators.