Rawalpindi - The scandal of Afghan nationals who won slots of councillors in recently held local government election from Rawalpindi allegedly on fake computerised national identity cards (CNICs) has taken a new turn after it was found that a PML-N parliamentarian had verified NADRA’s cancellation/blocking form for CNIC of brother-in-law of one of the candidates.
Interestingly, one of the candidates had also allegedly misguided the NADRA officials by showing himself as a nambardar (a state-privileged status for a landlord with wide ranging governmental powers) on the cancellation/blocking form of his brother-in-law.
The NADRA had issued CNIC to the applicant after submission of form attested by a PML-N MPA, a local namabardar, a government schoolteacher, a 60-year-old local and the Afghan candidate, reliable sources disclosed to The Nation while providing all the documents as proof yesterday.
An intelligence agency had intimated the Vigilance Department of NADRA to block the CNICs of the Afghan nationals while another top intelligence agency has been collecting data of the Afghan nationals, the sources maintained.
According to sources, an Afghan national Janan Khan, son of Eid Muhammad, had applied for obtaining NADRA CNIC under tracking number R100144433 in 2011 while showing his permanent address as: Basali Post Office, Khas Basali. He mentioned his temporary address as: Babu Muhala, Golra Sharif, Islamabad. Likewise, he mentioned his mother name as Fani Bibi and his date of birth is 25-11-1991.
However, the NADRA officials after scrutiny blocked his form and raised objection on the information provided by the applicant and gave him cancellation/blocking form with an instruction to get it verified from the gazetted officer (any namabardar/MPA), sources said.
Janan Khan is brother-in-law of Sohbat Khan, the alleged Afghan national who contested LG polls from UC-70, Shakrial, under fake NADRA CNIC and was elected general councillor, sources said.
Sources said that Janan Khan approached PML-N MPA Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam for attestation of his form and the MPA (CNIC 37405-8091154-9) verified that Janan Khan was well known to him and a Pakistani national. Later, four others including Khalid Navid Namabardar Basali (CNIC#37405-7528461-1), a senior teacher Junaid Ahmed (CNIC 37101-3139558-7) of FG Boys High School Rawat, Federal Area, Islamabad, Javed Iqbal Nambardar (CNIC 37405-4418099-5) of Dhoke Madhal Dakhli Basali and a senior citizen namely Liqauat Hussain followed the foot prints of MPA without conducting their own verifications and attested the form of the Afghan national Janan Khan, sources said.
The copies of forms of Janan Khan attested by the aforementioned persons are available with The Nation.
“Interestingly, Sohbat Khan had also thrown mud into the eyes of NADRA and introduced himself as nambardar in two places on the forms of Janan Khan,” the sources said adding that the applicant Janan mentioned the names and CNICs of his other family members who included Sher Khan son of Sultan Khan (CNIC#37405-8951626-7) as grandfather; Eid Muhammad son of Sher Khan (CNIC#61101-4196248-7) as father, Akbar Khan (CNIC#37405-7855374-1), Zafar Khan (CNIC#37405-5250322-3) and Painda Khan (CNIC#37405-0638200-3), sons of Sher Khan as uncles, and Awal Khan son of Painda Khan (CNIC#37405-0755368-1) as his cousin (all residing in Dhoke Daroga Hassan Ali Basali) to make his case stronger. All the family members of Janan Khan have also been mentioned in electoral list of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), something seeking strong attention of ECP bigwigs and other intelligence agencies.
The applicant had applied again for NADRA CNIC after getting his objection removed from MPA and others and was granted CNIC, sources said. An intelligence agency detected the fraud of Janan in 2011 and requested the then DG Vigilance Department Col (Retd) Azam to take action but nothing was done. The same spy agency has again moved a request to DG Vigilance Department NADRA to block the CNICs of the Afghan nationals and action would be taken against them during next week, sources claimed.
Javed Iqbal Nambardar, when contacted, admitted that he attested the NADRA form of Janan Khan after seeing stamp and signature of MPA Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam on the form.
He said though he had not known Janan Khan personally yet he verified his form on the base of the MPA’s stamp. “Look, these people have been living in Basali for the last 30 years and own big farmlands, bulldozers and excavators and are considered locals by other villagers. But I am not fully sure whether they are Pakistanis or Afghans,” he said in response to a query. PML-N MPA Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam neither picked up his cell phone nor did reply to an SMS sent on his cell number by this correspondent about form attestation issue.
Provincial Minister for Labour and Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, who is also general secretary of PML-N, when approached and sought his version over the issue, lost his mind over this scribe saying: “I am not sitting idle to offer my comments over an issue which I have nothing to do with. You should call Federal Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan as NADRA comes under his control or call again to MPA Engineer Qamar ul Islam for his point of view.”