ISLAMABAD - Amid reports about issuing of thousands of CNICs to Afghan nationals by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), a new scam came in the limelight on Thursday in the Senate committee as the authority has allegedly issued Pakistani identity cards to 200 Ujbek and Tajek nationals.
Senate Standing Committee on Interior that met under the chair of Senator Talha Mahmood questioned Chairman Nadra Usman Mubeen as to how fake CNICs (computerized national identity cards) had been issued to around 200 nationals of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan by Nadra in Lahore. The Chairman Nadra shortly told the committee that the matter was under investigation. Chairman committee said that according to a rough estimate, Rs 0.1 million at least were taken as bribe to issue each card.
The committee members came down hard on Nadra saying it was still busy in issuing CNICs to foreigners especially Afghan nationals besides it also allegedly issued CNICs to thousands to Afghan nationals in the past.
The Chairman Nadra admitted before the committee that some Nadra officials had been found involved in issuing CNICs to foreign nationals especially of Afghanistan. He said that action had already been taken against 272 such officials in various regions of Nadra. He also said that the authority has still a backlog of such inquiries against its officials. However, he admitted before the committee that officials deputed at Nadra centres including centre in-charge could not make forgery for the issuance of duplicate CNICs to Pakistanis but could do this in case of issuance of CNICs to foreign nationals.
“We have the technology to catch issuance of duplicate cards of Pakistanis but nor for foreigners...Centre in-charge can do a lot as far as issuance of CNICs to foreigners are concerned,” he said that puts a question mark on the self-claimed modern database of Nadra.
Shahid Hamid (member) Nadra said that the authority was lenient in the past against officials involved in issuance of fake cards but now it had adopted zero tolerance against such officials.
The committee recommended that Nadra should strengthen its vigilance department to keep an eye on black sheep in the authority.
According to a report submitted by Nadra before the committee, the authority has yet to take action against its 29 officials whose list had been forwarded by Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to Nadra along with a list of 1772 Afghan nationals whom fake CNICs have been issued by these officials.
Senator Sahi Syed questioned how an Afghan girl with the fame of First World’s Third World Mona Lisa was issued fake CNIC from Peshawar. Senator Talha Mahmood recommended that Nadra should go into the assets details of its employees and point out those ones whose assets had increased unusually with the passage of time.
The Chairman committee questioned how some CNICs vanished from Nadra Center Wah Cantt between the night of 12 and 12 January.
The committee sought a detailed report from Ministry of Interior about the harassment being faced by overseas Pakistan in the hands of FIA at airport while travelling to South Africa.
Giving a briefing of the Safe City Project, Shahid Hamid said that two consultants had been hired on the direction of the interior minister to check the quality of the equipment purchased from Chinese company.
Director General (DG) Passports Muhammad Safdar in his briefing informed that the time period for issuance of urgent passports had been curtailed from five days to four and normal passports from 12 days to 10 days. He said that postings in passport offices at foreign missions would be made soon as nominations from passport office had been sent to the ministry. He said that in 2014, readable passport machines had been installed at 14 foreign missions and till April 2015, readable passport machines would be operationalized at 10 more missions.
Senator Sahi raised before the committee that people of Pashtun origin in Punjab and Interior Sindh were treated as Afghan nationals and police badly treated them after taking their CNICs into its custody. The chair remarked that police was even bound to accept their CNICs even if these were not genuine.
DEMO AGAINST COMPLICATED NADRA
VERIFICATION
Staff Reporter from Peshawar adds: Activists of Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party (PRHP) on Friday held a protest demonstration against the authorities of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for allegedly blocking the CNICs of genuine Pakistani citizens.
Amid chanting slogans against the government and Nadra authorities, the activists gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club.
“There should be a proper verification process but the procedure should be simple and not too complicated which creates hurdles for genuine citizens. The concerned branch of NADRA should make proper verification immediately and CNIC should be issued to genuine citizens immediately,” said Saeed Ullah, PRHP Peshawar President, while talking to reporters.
He condemned the NADRA incompetent authorities for blocking CNICs without any reasons, and demanded of the government to open a sophisticated verification branch in Nadra to look into matters of suspected and invalid CNICs in every union council.