ISLAMABAD - As the government is striving hard to verify the authenticity of mobile phone subscribers’ details through Biometric Verification System (BVS), the Afghan nationals in Pakistan continue to breach security mechanism apparently in ‘connivance’ with PTA to get non-verified SIMs, The Nation has learnt reliably.
The security agencies of the country are perturbed over the practice of issuing non-verified SIMs to Afghan nationals with PTA keeping a mum over the violation of its own SOP and the government instructions. The mobile phone companies operating in Pakistan are also reluctant to provide number of SIMs/data issued to Afghan nationals.
According to a report prepared by the security agencies of the country, a copy of which is exclusively available with this scribe, a large number of Afghan nationals have been seen roaming at F-8 Markaz of Islamabad for getting mobile phone SIMS. The report said majority of the Afghan refugees submits stamp papers for issuance of new mobile SIMs or activation of old SIMs.
“In F-8 Markaz, stamp vendors have displayed pamphlets wherein it has been written that for registration of Afghan SIMs, affidavits may be obtained from here. A large number of Afghans belonging to Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other nearby cities come and get mobile SIMs after obtaining stamp papers,” says report.
According to these Afghans, SIMs are not issued in any other district except Islamabad, therefore, a large number of Afghans visit stamp vendors at district kutchehri located in F-8 Markaz Islamabad,” the report says further.
The report quoting Afghan refugees states, “Two SIMs are being issued on one affidavit, so if we submit three affidavits, we will get six SIMs of different companies.”
In this regard, cellular companies confirmed that they were issuing SIMs to Afghan refugees on submitting an affidavit on stamp papers and the practice was in accordance with the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the PTA. The intelligence report expressed concern that verification of Afghans through Biometric Verification System was not being carried out and issuing of SIMs, it added, was a clear violation of government instructions and SOP issued by the PTA.
The report further said that mobile companies were reluctant to provide number of SIMs/data issued to Afghans. However, the report quoted the names of two Afghans who were able to get mobile SIMs just on submission of an affidavit on stamp papers. These include Muhammad Hassan, mobile number 0333-5399797 and Saddam Hussain with mobile number 0337-1454457. The report said the issuance of SIMs to Afghans might lead to some serious consequences. “Many illegal SIMs having no record, were used in recent incidents of terrorism. Obtaining Afghan cards in tribal areas is very easy and any person can easily get the card. In Islamabad also, there is no difficulty in getting SIM of any mobile company after submitting an affidavit”, the report said inviting attention of the high-ups to this important issue so that issuance of non-verified SIMs could be stopped to avoid any terrorist activity in future.
The government pursuing the National Action Plan (NAP) had asked Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to verify around 103 million SIMs through the BVS. Since the exercise began on Jan 12 this year, PTA has re-verified only 8.72 million connections.
During the last many years, government and PTA took various measures to control the issue of fake SIMs. However, due to conflict of interest and lack of determination on the part of cellphone industry, these steps could not produce the desired results. The effective implementation of SIM issuance procedures is in conflict with the vested interest of cellphone industry as each operator is striving to enhance its business by issuing maximum number of SIMs without seeing the dark side of this uncontrolled competition. The fake SIMs are not only working as a catalyst for grey traffic but also proved a major threat to security of the country.