Pakistan will begin blocking mobile phone SIM cards registered with expired national identity cards, the government said on Friday.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Islamabad.
In the first phase, SIMs linked to ID cards that expired in 2017 or earlier will be targeted. Later phases will include those issued on cards cancelled after 2017, the notification said.
The move aims to ensure that all mobile connections are tied only to active national identity cards, officials said.
NADRA Chairman Lt. Gen. Muhammad Munir Afsar said the process will be carried out with the help of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
He added that SIMs issued under the names of deceased persons or expired ID card holders will also be blocked.
NADRA spokesperson Shabahat Ali told Nukta that the PTA had blocked SIMs registered on expired ID cards only up to 2016.
“There was no reason given for why the process stopped after 2016,” he said. “Now, on the recommendation of the Interior Minister, the PTA has been asked to restart this work and move quickly.”
Ali said the new drive will be conducted in phases, starting with SIMs issued after 2016.
When asked how many SIMs were blocked before 2016, the PTA said it was still collecting that data and would share figures later.
The meeting also decided to introduce facial recognition technology to help citizens facing problems with fingerprint-based identity verification.
Separately, Interior Minister Naqvi laid the foundation stone of a new 10-storey NADRA Mega Center in Islamabad’s Sector I-8. The project is expected to be completed by June 2026.
He also approved the establishment of regional NADRA offices in Multan, Sukkur, and Gwadar.
Officials further noted that NADRA’s mobile app has now been downloaded more than 7 million times.
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