WaPo | Cellphones didn’t just arrive in Pakistan. But someone could be
fooled into thinking otherwise, considering the tens of millions of
Pakistanis pouring into mobile phone stores these days.
In one
of the world’s largest — and fastest — efforts to collect biometric
information, Pakistan has ordered cellphone users to verify their
identities through fingerprints for a national database being compiled
to curb terrorism. If they don’t, their service will be shut off, an
unthinkable option for many after a dozen years of explosive growth in
cellphone usage here.
Prompted by concerns about a proliferation
of illegal and untraceable SIM cards, the directive is the most visible
step so far in Pakistan’s efforts to restore law and order after
Taliban militants killed 150 students and teachers at a school in
December. Officials said the six terrorists who stormed the school in
Peshawar were using cellphones registered to one woman who had no obvious connection to the
attackers.
But the effort to match one person to each cellphone number involves a
jaw-dropping amount of work. At the start of this year, there were 103
million SIM cards in Pakistan — roughly the number of the adult
population — that officials were not sure were valid or properly
registered. And mobile companies have until April 15 to verify the
owners of all of the cards, which are tiny chips in cellphones that
carry a subscriber’s personal security and identity information.
In the past six weeks, 53 million SIMs belonging to 38 million
residents have been verified through biometric screening, officials
said.
“Once the verification of each and every SIM is done,
coupled with blocking unverified SIMs, the terrorists will no longer
have this tool,” said a senior Interior Ministry official, who was not
authorized to speak publicly about the government’s security policy.
“The government knows that it’s an arduous job, both for the cellular
companies and their customers, but this has to be done as a national
duty.”
