The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has initiated the second phase of mobile SIM suspensions to combat illegal usage.

According to the PTA, this phase targets individuals whose identity cards expired before 2017 and who have not renewed them.

In the first phase, the authority suspended SIMs linked to fake identity cards and those that had been canceled.

Since August 16, over 69,000 illegal SIMs have been deactivated. The third phase will focus on suspending SIMs registered under the names of deceased individuals.

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To restore their blocked SIMs, users will need to obtain new, valid identity cards from NADRA (Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority) and then visit their mobile operator or franchise to get their SIMs unblocked through biometric verification.

Additionally, PTA has warned that SIMs issued against expired identity cards prior to 2017 will also be blocked within a week. Users can avoid this by renewing their ID cards through NADRA and getting their SIMs verified.