ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Telecomm­unications Authority (PTA) have jointly developed a new system for temporary registration of overseas Pakistani and foreign nationals mobile devices in collaboration with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and mobile phone operators.

This module has been introduced for those overseas Pakistanis and foreign nationals who do not intend to keep their mobile device in Pakistan and will be applicable for only one mobile handset device.

To avail of this facility, the applicant shall provide his/her credentials including passport number, date of arrival and intended date of departure, mobile SIM issued in his/her name, and IMEI(s) of the device.

The new system shall carry out real-time validation from FIA’s Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) to verify the date of arrival of the applicant.

On the lapse of 120 days of the stay of the applicant, the IMEI(s) utilised under this facilitation shall be suspended and will not be utilised on local network services. In case, the same applicant visits Pakistan again, he/she will be required to re-apply for this temporary facilitation, by re-entering the credentials which were used for the 1st or previous registration under this scheme.

This system will not only facilitate overseas Pakistanis and foreign nationals coming to Pakistan on a short-term basis but will also create a positive image of the country. Likewise, the checks introduced under this system will ensure that only the genuine overseas Pakistani/foreign national avails the said facility.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022