ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority contradicted its own statistics by stating that 68 million SIMs has been verified till March 8th, adding a new controversy to the ongoing biometric verification project.
According to statistics released on Tuesday, 68,764,886 SIMs were verified against Computerised National Identity Cards.
About 10,946,342 SIMs were blocked after they were disowned, while 8,255,695 were actually blocked.
Last month the authority released figures claiming 72 million SIMS have been verified, against 46 million CNICs. Out of total 103 million SIMs, while 10 million SIMs were disowned.
Is it a merely human/typo error or is it an intentional move to show success of the campaign, by manipulating the figures, PTA media team was not available to comment, however, sources claimed that the move was intentional and part of the media campaign.
It is not the first time that some PTA statement resulted in creating confusion.
The first confusion broke when PTA in its media campaigns announced that all the unverified SIMs would be blocked on February 26, but on the deadline date, when media rushed to authority, they were told that actual date was somewhere in April.
If the deadline was not true, why had not the PTA issued a statement to correct it.
Did not the authority mislead and misguide general people: Was not it a crime? When asked the sources said that it was part of the media campaign so that a sense of fear could be created among general public, and they would rush to verify their SIMs, and advertising is business of half truth, they justified their lie.
It is pertinent to mention that the verification was initiated last year, but could not get any momentum. It was may be the fear, that the cellular companies announced wrong dates, and PTA kept mum.
The second major confusion arise when PTA Chairman, reportedly told lawmakers in a Standing Committee meeting that NADRA was charging Rs 20 per verification, a claim which was strongly rejected by NADRA.
We have been charging around Rs 3, after Finance Ministry asked us to reduce the data-sharing fee from Rs 9 to Rs 3, said Nadra officials.
The database authority officials were reluctant to give any statement on record, claiming that Minister of Interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, has passed special directives that no NDRA official would give any statement to media, and all the media queries, in written format, would be passed on to Ministry of Interior.
PTA Media Director Khurram Ali Mehran, a foreign qualified officer, in media studies, who is, according to sources, main brain behind the whole biometric campaign, did not pick up the phone despite many attempts.
