Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) today announced that, under mutual agreement with all key stakeholders, there shall be no extension in the final deadline of 12th April, 2015 as the biometric re-verification is on track.
Not to mention, PTA had earlier announced that deadline would be February 26, 2015, however, later it turned out that PTA miscommunicated the date to create alertness in the nation for getting their SIMs re-verified at earliest.
It is now officially confirmed that last date for re-verification of SIM is April 12th, 2015.
Also Read: Guidelines for Re-verification for Overseas Pakistanis / Old Age and Disabled
According to the figures, 70 million SIMs have been re-verified so far across the country and the telcos are making all-out efforts to re-verify rest of the SIMs before the end of the final deadline.
PTA said that another 11 million SIMs have been disowned by the customers. Hence total number of processed SIMs for reverification stand at 81 Million.
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Dr. Syed Ismail Shah, at a press briefing today lauded the ongoing efforts of the cellular operators and stated,
“PTA in collaboration with the five telecom operators has taken all measures to ensure accomplishment of the government’s National Action Plan.
All the five telecom operators and their franchises and retail network played a pivotal role towards meeting the deadlines set by the government.
As per the guidelines of Ministry of Interior (MoI), the final deadline would not be extended, which is also in the best interest of the country.
This poses more responsibility on the PTA, the operators and most importantly on us as responsible citizens to ensure that we get out of our homes and offices and play our part in making a contribution to a safer future for our children.
It is important that we verify all unverified SIMs before 12-April otherwise as per instructions from MoI, they will be blocked. I would like to reiterate that PTA will ensure taking all possible measures to facilitate the re-verification process.”
In a bid to support government’s role to counter terrorism in the country, the telecom industry deployed 15,000 new biometric machines for the SIM re-verification drive in addition to 65,000 which were deployed earlier by all five operators.
Also Read: Everything you need to know about SIM reverification
These machines have been handed over to various retailers across Pakistan in a move which provides ease of access to consumers in all regions.
The telcos have also come up with various innovative methods and activities to reach maximum number of people possible before the extended deadline i.e. reach out programs where biometric re-verification teams visit government organizations, universities, press clubs and other similar organizations, and door to door re-verification.
