News Report · Numbers Untangled
More than 3.2 million SIMs blocked; deceased-CNIC records behind them all. That is the tally from PTA’s July 2024 to June 2025 enforcement year, which swept lines registered on deceased citizens’ CNICs, plus 891,000 long-dormant lines — and headlines in mid-July 2026 re-surfaced those figures as if they were new. They are real, they are sourced, and they are worth understanding precisely, because three different “millions” are now circulating and readers keep mixing them up. Here is each number with its date, and what the sweep means for your own record at Check SIM Owner Details Pakistan.
Key takeaways
- 3.2 million+ SIMs blocked, deceased-CNIC records, across PTA’s enforcement year, July 2024 – June 2025 (re-reported by Pkrevenue, 12 July 2026).
- 891,000 dormant SIMs were blocked in the same enforcement effort.
- This is a different figure from the 4,906,611 SIMs NADRA flagged on expired/deceased CNICs (announced 17 June 2025, ProPakistani) — that was scope; the 3.2M is action.
- The direction of travel is one-way: SIMs on dead or expired identities are being swept, batch by batch.
- Your move is unchanged: SMS your CNIC to 668 (about Rs 2) or use cnic.sims.pk free, and make sure everything on your record is yours — and alive.
One housekeeping note, as always: this report states what named outlets and official figures published, with dates, and separates metrics that headlines blur together. Where a number’s vintage matters, we say so.
SIMs blocked, deceased-CNIC records: what was actually reported
On 12 July 2026, Pkrevenue reported PTA’s enforcement figures: more than 3.2 million SIMs registered against deceased individuals’ CNICs deactivated, alongside 891,000 dormant SIMs blocked. The same 3.2M figure has circulated on PTA-linked social posts, and our own industry write-up pinned it to the enforcement year running July 2024 through June 2025.
So the honest framing is: a year’s sweep, freshly back in the news — not a new overnight purge. That distinction matters on a page like ours, where every figure carries its date or it does not appear at all.
Three “millions”, untangled
- 4,906,611 — SIMs NADRA flagged on expired or deceased CNICs for phased action, announced 17 June 2025 (ProPakistani). That was the scope list.
- 3.2 million+ — the SIMs blocked: deceased-CNIC lines actually deactivated across the Jul 2024 – Jun 2025 enforcement year (re-reported 12 July 2026). That is action against the scope.
- 8.1 million — SIMs sitting on expired or unrenewed CNICs per PTA’s 8 April 2026 advisory (Geo / Express Tribune) — the next frontier, tied to roughly 4.5 million CNICs.
Different dates, different jobs. Any page or post quoting these interchangeably is doing arithmetic with someone else’s homework — our dated changelog keeps each one pinned where it belongs.
What the sweep means for your CNIC
A SIM does not switch itself off when its owner dies. It stays live against that CNIC until a family member closes or transfers it at the operator’s franchise, or until PTA blocks it in a sweep like the July 2024 to June 2025 round. The franchise route needs the death certificate, an FRC from NADRA and the CNICs involved — the family’s cleaner path, walked step by step in our family guide. For your own lines, all 12 official methods of running a SIM ownership check sit in one hub, and checking your own record is fully legal, as the PECA 2016 explainer sets out.
An expired CNIC is quietly becoming a telecom problem of its own: renewals now protect your numbers, not just your paperwork — what your ID card number reveals shows how much rides on those 13 digits. One monthly habit covers a late relative’s line and your own record alike: text your 13-digit CNIC to 668 (about Rs 2) or open the free portal, read the count with the decoder, and clear anything that should not be there before a sweep — or a fraudster — gets to it first. New to the code? Our guide to the 668 SMS check walks through the reply line by line.
The rules that make a sweep like this possible
None of it works without the registry Pakistan built after the Supreme Court order of 5 November 2015, which put a fingerprint behind every SIM sale and set the national cap at 8 SIMs per CNIC, 5 voice and 3 data. Because each line is tied to a biometrically verified identity, a figure like the SIMs blocked (deceased-CNIC batches and dormant lines alike) can exist at all: death records are matched against operator rolls, and lines that should have ended with their owners are switched off batch by batch. How to read your own count against that cap is on our SIM limit per CNIC guide.
The registry keeps tightening in the same direction. A new SIM cannot be disowned or transferred for a full year after activation under the 365-day lock (PTA advisory, 24 May 2026), and disowning a SIM you never bought is done at the operator franchise for a fee PTA capped at Rs 200 from 1 January 2024. Both rules sit, dated and sourced, on our 365-day SIM rule page and the PTA SIM news changelog.
Enforcement also has a public reporting arm. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has run the 1799 helpline since 3 June 2025, and PTA takes telecom complaints on 0800-55055, the same pipeline that produced the July 2026 data-selling arrests. The advisories themselves are published by PTA and NADRA directly, which is where every figure on this page ultimately traces back.
What this means for your own CNIC
The practical question is not whether the sweep was real; it was. The question is whether your own record is clean before the next batch runs. If your card has lapsed, renew it: the 8 April 2026 advisory put 8.1 million SIMs on expired or unrenewed CNICs, tied to roughly 4.5 million cards, and those lines are the obvious next frontier after the SIMs blocked; deceased-CNIC batches simply came first.
- Your own lines: SMS your 13-digit CNIC to 668 (about Rs 2) or use cnic.sims.pk free, monthly, and keep a dated screenshot.
- A late relative’s line: the operator franchise route with the death certificate, an FRC from NADRA and the CNICs involved is faster and cleaner than waiting for the next batch of SIMs blocked, deceased-CNIC list included, to catch it.
- A SIM you never bought: disown it at the franchise (fee capped at Rs 200) before it is misused in your name.
- An expired CNIC: renew it at NADRA first; an expired card is quietly becoming a telecom problem of its own, as the 8.1 million figure shows.
For the wider mid-July picture, our PTA SIM rules roundup separates what changed from what held, and the arrests that ran alongside this sweep are on the NCCIA enforcement week report.
Sources: Pkrevenue (12 July 2026) · ProPakistani (17 June 2025) · Geo / Express Tribune (8 April 2026) · PTA enforcement-year reporting (Jul 2024 – Jun 2025).
