Pakistan’s mobile phone owners told: be fingerprinted or lose your sim card

‘Mobile 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 efforts to collect biometric information, Pakistan has ordered mobile 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 mobile phone usage.’

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