Cellular companies committed to SIM biometric re-verification

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cellular industry has reiterated its commitment towards national security by initiating the biometric re-verification process of around 103 million mobile phone SIMs - as part of the government’s newly devised National Action Plan to counter terrorism, a statement said on Wednesday.
Currently the re-verification process is being performed by all the five cellular mobile operators - namely Mobilink, Telenor Pakistan, Ufone, Zong and Warid through Biometric Verification System (BVS) across the country.
“The cellular mobile operators have always worked with the government and provided all requisite support in implementing all measures taken to facilitate data verification exercises in the past as well including the 668 process back in 2009, 789 verification process in 2011 and Biometric Verification System (BVS) introduced in 2014,” the statement said.
The cellular industry has urged all its valued customers to perform their national duty by re-verifying their mobile phone SIMs as per the schedule announced by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Ministry of Interior.
The industry has also sought government’s support to meet the extremely challenging task by ensuring cooperation of law enforcement agencies/local authorities, provision of security at service centers/franchise and BVS retailers across the country where re-verification process is underway etc.
“Despite having reservations on the execution plan for this huge exercise, the Industry as always has agreed to the requirement of the GoP (under the National Action Plan) for carrying out SIMs re-verification through BVS within 90 days and will put its best efforts to try and complete this herculean task within the stipulated timeframe,” it added.