Cutting all phone lines to terrorists
OFFICIALS TELL CITIZENS TO SURRENDER FINGERPRINTS OR GIVE UP CELL PHONES
Cell phones 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 world’s largest — and fastest — efforts to collect biometric information, Pakistan has ordered cell phone 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 cell phone usage here.
Concerned 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 militants who stormed the school in Peshawar were using cell phones registered to one woman who had no obvious connection to the attackers.
But efforts to match one person to each cell phone 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.
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 authorised 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.”
As Pakistan’s decade-long struggle against Islamist extremism has stretched on, residents have grown accustomed to hassles such as long security lines and police checkpoints. Now they must add the inconvenience of rushing into a retail store to keep their phones on.
“I spend all day working and sometimes have to work till late in the night. ... I cannot afford to stand in line for hours to have my SIM verified,” said Abid Ali Shah, 50, a taxi driver who was waiting to be fingerprinted at a cell phone store. “But if I don’t do it, my phone is my only source of communication that I have to remain in touch with my family.”
❝ It’s a massive, nationwide exercise with a tight deadline, but hopefully we will be able to verify our customers by the April deadline.” Omar Manzur Mobilink executive
| 5 m number of cell phone subscribers Pakistan had in 2003. 136 m Sim cards in use in the country today, authorities say.
Remote areas
The number of cell phone subscribers has grown from about 5 million in 2003 to about 136 million today, according to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. It’s even common for Pakistanis in remote or mountainous areas, where electricity can be sporadic and few have access to vehicles, to own a cell phone.
With 50 million more SIM cards left to be verified, phone companies are dispatching outreach teams deep into the countryside and mountains to notify customers of the policy.
“It’s a massive, nationwide exercise with a tight deadline, but hopefully we will be able to verify our customers by the April deadline,” said Omar Manzur, an executive at Mobilink, which has 38 million customers in Pakistan.
One region that appears largely unaffected by the plan is the immediate area around the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where many Islamist militants have historically sought refuge. Pakistani cell phone networks generally do not provide service to those areas, and residents try to get coverage from Afghan networks, officials said.
Cell phone owners’ fingerprints are being matched with those on file in a national database the government began creating in 2005. Those whose prints are not in the database must first submit them to National Database & Registration Authority. Some residents, including several million Afghan refugees not eligible for citizenship, also have to obtain a court affidavit attesting they will properly use their cell phones.
Over the years, several countries, including South Africa and India, have implemented broad systems for obtaining and storing residents’ biometric information. But analysts and communications experts say they can’t recall a country trying to gather biometrics as rapidly as Pakistan is doing.
“In a country like this, where the infrastructure is not available in many areas, this looks unprecedented,” said Wahaj us Siraj, the chief executive officer of Nayatel, a major Pakistani internet supplier.
Once the fingerprint database is complete, police and intelligence officials will have a much easier time tracing the origins of crimes or terrorist attacks, said Ammar Jaffri, former deputy director of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency.
Jaffri noted that cell phones have often been used to detonate explosive devices in Pakistan. Authorities are also struggling to curb extortion carried out by criminals, often affiliated with banned militant groups, who make threatening phone calls demanding money. Jaffri said Pakistanis should just accept that a SIM card “becomes part of you” and that any privacy concerns do not usurp government regulation of airwaves.
Still, many Pakistanis are taking the process in stride, saying they are willing to do whatever it takes to reduce terrorism. They are sceptical, however, that this will be the answer to ending a war that has killed more than 50,000 Pakistani residents and soldiers over the past 13 years. “If this can bring peace, it’s OK,” said Khan Gul, his thumb still stained with blue ink. “But I am wondering how a mobile phone verification can bring peace.”