LAHORE: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started the second phase of blocking mobile SIMs to prevent their illegal use, its spokesperson said on Monday.

In this phase, the SIMs of users whose national identity cards expired before 2017 and have not been renewed yet will be blocked.

The spokesperson urged citizens to renew their ID cards to avoid their SIMs from being blocked. Earlier, the regulator blocked fake SIMs and those issued on expired ID cards in the first phase.

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In the third stage, the SIMs registered in the names of deceased people will be blocked.

Illegal SIMs are being blocked based on Nadra’s data, the PTA spokesperson said, adding fake sims are being used in various illegal activities and tax fraud.

Users whose connections are being blocked will receive a message on their numbers before the action, the spokesperson added.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2024