NADRA to assist cellular companies in verifying authenticity of applicants for new SIMs
The government and the five cellular service providing companies active in Pakistan signed an agreement on Friday under which, no new Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) will be issued after July 31, 2014, without verifying the biometric identity of the applicant from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA)’s biometric system.
The new agreement signed on Friday has resolved a two year row between the government and cellular service providers who had been resisting the move.
The NADRA chairman and the CEOs of Ufone, Mobilink, Zong, Warid and Telenor all signed the agreement. Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Syed Ismail Shah witnessed the signing ceremony.
Before the agreement was signed, NADRA Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar gave a detailed briefing to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the salient features of the accord.
Under the agreement, NADRA, which maintains biometric record of citizens, will assist cellular companies to verify authenticity of every new applicant before activating their SIM card.
Per the agreement, cellular companies will bear the cost of procuring biometric machines and install them at their respective franchises and retailers.
Furthermore, NADRA will charge cellular companies Rs10 for each biometric verification.
“Biometric based SIM verification will provide better technological support to law enforcement agencies, thus improving the security situation in the country” interior ministry quoted the minister as saying in its press statement.
As per the new system, nobody will be able to buy a new SIM without going through biometric verification process, the statement added.
The Minister asked NADRA and the cellular companies to devise a mechanism for clearing a heavy backlog of unverified SIMs in the country.
Cellular service providing companies had been resisting use of biometrics for SIM verifications mainly due to cost and other technical issues. They claimed that they get a copy of CNIC issued by NADRA from an applicant and it should serve the purpose.
Another contentious issue between the government and the influential cellular companies is re-verification of every existing SIM user. There are around 129.6 million SIM users in the country.
Among these SIMs, millions are “unverified” SIMs. Blocking them will affect the revenue of the telecom companies.
