PTA starts mandatory facial recognition of subscribers to tackle ‘illegal’ SIMs issue

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has begun requiring people registering SIM cards to get their faces identified in order to curb illegal SIM cards in the country. According to a report by 24 Digital, PTA disclosed that over 360, 000 national identity cards (NICs) have been blacklisted as illegally issued SIMs leading to closure of 52 franchises associated with the business and warnings to 532 others. It is also reported that PTA had forwarded 29 such cases to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for investigation and also imposed fines on some of the companies involved.