ISLAMABAD - National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) authorities have insisted that a recent pronouncement of the interior minister to scrap an agreement with MasterCard, an online global payment company, was made in haste, ruling out any chance of compromise of the security of the authority’s database.
Some senior officers in NADRA maintained that the agreement with MasterCard did not compromise the security the database as the online payment company was not being given access to it.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan suspended the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the NADRA and the MasterCard while voicing concern over the agreement and said that security of the national database would be at stake as no written approval was taken from the government.
NADRA officials claim that the MoU was signed to facilitate Pakistani citizens having computerised national identity cards (CNICs) for online money transactions.
“Keep in mind that only an MoU was signed with MasterCard and NADRA itself had to develop all end-to-end solutions for the entire mechanism of online money disbursement and there arises no question of the company’s access to the database of the authority,” a senior officer of the authority said.
The official said that under the procedure, any MasterCard-holder will have to send the required amount in the name of any CNIC-holder and NADRA was bound to verify the details of the CNIC-holder through its database. “The MasterCard would only verify credit card number and amount of the sum,” he said questioning how the online money processing company was being given access to the database. After due verification, the CNIC-holder receives the money through Faysal Bank or more than 9,000 e-Sahulat centres of NADRA, he said.
Another NADRA official said that the apprehensions of the interior minister were correct in the sense that prior approval from the interior ministry should have been sought before signing the MoU, but he also ruled out the possibility of giving the firm access to the NADRA database.
While giving details of the MoU, he said that after the MOU is signed, end-to-end solutions are developed, finances are negotiated and a draft contract is prepared. This draft contract is then sent to ministries of finance, law and the interior as well as law enforcement agencies before signing a final contract. He said that the accord has been questioned even before the development of end-to-end solutions that were to be made by the authority.
NADRA Spokesman Faik Ali declined to comment on the issue. Interior Ministry Spokesman Sarfraz Hussain did not respond while repeated attempts were made to get his version on the issue.
Foreign banks already have access to Nadra database
A senior banker, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said that all foreign banks operating in Pakistan have access to the NADRA database for opening bank accounts. He said that all banks have access to the database through NADRA’s Verisys, software developed for the verification of CNICs. NADRA gives a link of Verisys to every branch of foreign banks located in Pakistan and the banks through this can see the back-end details of the CNIC-holder including his family tree.
Online money transaction through credit/debit cards
A senior IT officer in NADRA said that the authority was already doing online money transactions through credit card companies including the MasterCard etc for online payments to issue CNICs, NICOPs (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis), POCs (Pakistan Origin Cards) and FRCs (Family Registrations Certificates). Pak-Identity is NADRA’s online ID issuance system and online payments are received through this system, claims the website of Pak-Identity.
The officer claimed that the agreement with MasterCard was just like the money disbursement system of the Western Union, an international online money transfer company. He said that the NADRA will verify the CNIC number of the money recipient and charge fee like the Western Union and other banks do and there were no chances of giving access to the MasterCard through this deal.
The interior minister while suspending the MoU had said that a foreign company was being given access to a sensitive database of the national registration body. He had said that the agreement was made without prior written approval of the federal government.
On January 18, MasterCard announced its strategic collaboration with NADRA and the announcement was made during MasterCard’s participation in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. A team of NADRA was also in Davos at that time.