ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said a smart National Identity Cards with innovative and enhanced features would be introduced soon to facilitate the people and end chances of forgery.
‘National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has designed this new smart ID card, as it would gradually replace Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs), being issued currently in the country’, he said. He was talking to media persons after attending a briefing by NADRA management about its performance and future projects.
Rehman Malik said that smart card, which also would have a chip, and at the same time it would have features including driving licence and bankcard.
He said in future, the smart card, having thumb impression and picture of the holder, would help minimise chances of forgery.
Rehman Malik said he would soon brief the Federal Cabinet about the smart card and after getting its approval the card would be launched.
He also informed that 90.2 per cent adult population in Pakistan had been registered with NADRA and they had been issued CNICs.
Giving further details, he said 100 per cent registration process had been completed in Islamabad, 80 per cent in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively and almost 100 per cent in Gilgit-Baltistan.
He said NADRA, through its innovative services, had enlisted itself as one of the best organisations in the world, adding, that it had worked a lot during floods and also prepared software for Integrated Border Management System.
This system has already been installed at three international airports in the country to compile data of travellers.
Soon it would be introduced at Torkham border, he added.
Answering a question, Malik said five adults and nine minor members of Osama Bin Laden’s family had been kept in safe custody and they were being looked after.
‘As they had violated law of land for illegally entering and staying in Pakistan, therefore the court would decide their case’, he added.
He said Osama’s family has been given permission to hire a lawyer, adding, that if the court exonerated them, they could proceed anywhere in the world they liked. Replying to another question, Rehman Malik said NADRA had also developed software that would help match faces.
This system would also be used by law-enforcement agencies to combat crimes, he added.