STAFF REPORT IBD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has not yet completed the system of biometric SIM verification mainly due to the absence of decision-making officials at the telecom watchdog.
The other parties concerned with this new system to be introduced, both the NADRA and the telecom companies are all prepared for this new system to take over.
Sources said that the absence of officials has been caused by the internal problems that PTA has been going through one after the other. After the dismissal of the former chairman Farooq Awan by the Lahore High Court and the retirement of the member finance, there is no official which can make the decision on part of the PTA.
The sources further said that the consultation process is on-going with all five telecom companies and will be forwarded to the Prime Minister for extending the deadline of installing biometric SIM verification system.
According to the NADRA officials, telecom companies integration and testing has been successfully completed and a backend software was prepared for this. The tests for fingerprint data collection and verification have been done on NADRA devices and on other standard devices and they have been successful. NADRA has also recommended devices which will have security features and better performance.