Pakistan has ordered mobile users to get their SIM cards verified through fingerprints.
According to the engadget.com web site, this move is aimed to discourage extremists from relying on local carriers to communicate or trigger bombs. People have until April 13th (carriers have to comply by April 15th) to get their digits on the record if they want to keep their cell service intact.
Pakistan is determined to prevent terrorists from using untraceable cell phone accounts to coordinate attacks like that in Peshawar. For this Pakistan in this process is eroding civil liberties of its people.
The sheer scale of the fingerprint program could leave many upstanding people in the lurch. There are roughly 50 million SIM cards that haven't been registered so far, many of them in rural areas where participation is difficult. Even if Pakistan makes the deadline, that's not exactly a resounding victory, it still means that tens of millions of residents are losing some of the freedom that comes with anonymity.