Court allows physical remand of man booked for illegal activation of SIM cards till June 21

KARACHI/LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday remanded a suspect in the custody of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) in a case pertaining to illegal activation of SIM cards.

Faraz Ashraf, along with the owner and manager of a telecom franchise, has been booked by the NCCIA on the complaint of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for alleged involvement in illegal issuance of SIM cards.

Investigation Officer (IO) Ameer Ali Khoso produced the arrested suspect before a judicial magistrate (South) and requested his two-week physical remand for investigation. He stated that the suspect was required to be interrogated about the absconding suspects and their modus operandi.

However, the magistrate handed over the suspect to the IO on physical remand until June 21. According to the FIR, the NCCIA launched an inquiry on the PTA's complaint about illegal activation of SIM cards. The PTA forwarded an analysis report that a telecom franchise near the Kiran Hospital Road in Gulzar-e-Hijri, Scheme 33, was suspected to be involved in illegal activation of SIM cards, it said.

Between March 1 and 31, 2025, the franchise’s CRM activated a total of 1,536 SIMs, of which, 1,069, which amounted to about 70 per cent, were issued against female CNICs, mostly from Punjab.

"In many cases, the time between consecutive transactions was less than three minutes which is unusual," the PTA said. "Several CNICs were also used multiple times for SIM issuance." The SIM sale records for other numbers linked to the same CNICs were obtained from CMOs for verification, it said, adding that verification calls were made to these numbers to confirm any SIM purchases from Karachi but all the contacted individuals denied purchasing SIM cards from Karachi and stated that they had never visited the city. Eighty five SIM cards were issued to Afghan/foreign card holders.

The NCCIA said its cybercrime team proceeded to the place where it arrested Ashraf and seized digital devices under a proper seizure memo on the spot in the presence of witnesses.

During the course of inquiry, it transpired that the telecom franchise was owned by Osama Furqan Siddiqui, the agency said, adding that SIM cards were activated through the CRM portal operated by Faraz, an assistant at the franchise, and Aamir Rehan Siddiqui, who was the branch manager.

The NCCIA said that it had been established that Osama, Faraz and Amir were "intentionally, fraudulently and unlawfully involved in illegal activation of SIMs.” The FIR has been lodged under relevant sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 and Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Breakthrough

The racket, allegedly responsible for activating over 1,500 SIMs on fraudulent and stolen identity documents has now become the subject of a formal criminal investigation.

The case was initiated based on a complaint lodged by Zeeshan Shafiq, zonal director of the PTA Karachi Office. According to the FIR, the implicated franchise, operating under the CRM code CPKH007089, is accused of violating multiple provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 — specifically sections 17 and 43 — in addition to Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

An internal audit conducted by PTA raised red flags over the issuance of 1,536 SIM cards during March 2025, allegedly without biometric verification. A deeper probe revealed that the franchise had been activating SIMs using forged or unverifiable CNICs, many of which were linked to individuals across the country who never visited Karachi.

Thatta accounted for the highest number of unauthorized SIMs, with 559 issued there. Sujawal followed with 195, Sargodha with 135, Rawalpindi with 109, Toba Tek Singh with 83, Jhang with 48, Peshawar with 43, Khushab with 35, and Lahore with 30. Several individuals, including Nasir Bibi, Rehana Bibi, Naseem Bibi, and Kasam Fatima, were contacted by authorities and denied ever authorizing SIM registration in their names or visiting Karachi.

More alarmingly, at least 854 SIMs were activated using Afghan or other foreign identity documents, including Proof of Registration (PoR) and Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), raising serious national security concerns.

The PTA has reiterated that mobile operators and franchises are legally bound to follow stringent biometric verification protocols. Violations, especially those enabling criminal or militant activities, will result in severe legal consequences.