Islamabad: The mobile phone companies started blocking around 10 million unverified SIMs after the expiry of biometric re-verification campaign of SIMs on Sunday.
According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), around 78 million SIMs have been verified against 60,496,307 computerised national identity cards.
The number of total SIMs to be verified was 103 million at the start of the campaign, three months back.
According to PTA, one-day-old data, more than 11,757,797 SIMs were disowned and were blocked.
The officials said that the blocking of unverified SIMs would start from Monday and it would be completed in two days.
“We have to submit a final report to Ministry of Interior on April 14 that how many SIMs were verified and how many blocked, officials told this scribe.
However, according to officials, SIMs issued to foreigners or overseas Pakistanis would not be blocked, and their last date would be announced soon.
According to officials, the SIMs blocked after the last date could be re-opened immediately after the biometric SIM verification.
The process is intended to facilitate the users, so anyone whose SIM is blocked after Sunday could get his SIM reopened after biometric verification, the officials said, adding, the blocked number would not be issued to any other person till next six months.
The verification of SIMs was initiated by the government under the National Action Plan after the Peshawar Army Public School massacre in December last year, when security forces found that the SIMs used by the terrorists, were issued under fake names.
One of the terrorist used a SIM belonged to a woman residing in a far-flung village.
On the recommendation of the top spy agencies, the interior ministry geared up the biometric verification of the SIMs.
According to Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), there are 136 million cell phone users in the country.
