SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
In a key drive to control terrorism, Pakistan government considered verification of SIMs as the foot step because of use of unverified SIMs in army public school attack. During the times of PPP, Interior Minister Rehman Malik used to block mobile service on key occasions including Ashura, Eid or even of some other importance. However after APS attack, Pakistan government ordered biometric verification of SIMs. With the two days left for deadline of verification more than 68.76 million SIMs have been confirmed whilst a further 10.96 million have been disowned by customers. The roughly 80 million SIMs currently accounted for were registered to just 53.07 million Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs). Of the remaining 23 million SIMs, operators are expecting to verify around twelve to 15 million, whilst the rest are understood to be either dormant or to have been illegally registered. SIM registration is a very viable method to bring together national identity registration and access to branchless banking products and bridge the customer awareness gap while creating a high volume registered SIMs database. In terms of volume, the government can certainly claim by the deadline that over 74 million SIMs have been re-verified in collaboration with Nadra and the mobile network operators (MNOs). But the question is that whether this step would help to curb terrorism?
Infact the benefits of SIM registration for national-security purposes are dubious, at best. A 2013 study conducted by Groupe Spéciale Mobile (GSM) found that there was “no empirical evidence to indicate that mandating registration of prepaid SIM users led to a reduction in criminal activities.” Further, the same study found that the absence of a registration system did not indicate a greater risk of criminal or terrorist activities. Countries such as Mexico, which instituted a registration requirement in 2009 only to repeal it three years later, have found that such programs fall short of their objectives, and are having little to no impact on reduction of violence.
If Pakistan government is really serious to curb terrorism it would have take action against terrorists walking freely in Pakistan and issuing political statements and threatening to opponents. Until the active minds behind JuD, SSP,LeT and several other such organizations are not controlled, one cannot say that Government is serious to curb terrorism.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
