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National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairman Lt. Gen. Munir Afsar on Wednesday admitted before a Senate panel that some of the organization’s staff were involved in issuing fake Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) that were being used for illegal activities.
In a briefing to the Senate Committee on Interior, chaired by Senator Mohsin Aziz, Afsar said action had been taken against employees found engaged in illegal activity, adding 84 officials had been suspended from service thus far. “However, employees escape punishment due to the absence of a law dealing with privacy matters,” he said, with the committee recommending the use of modern measures to address these issues.
“Additionally, illegal residents succeed in becoming part of native family trees by offering bribes to family members,” said the NADRA chairman, adding analysis of processing measures had found various means used by non-nationals to secure CNICs. Among these, he said, was preparing documents using credentials of Pakistani families; biometric verification of a CNIC holder belonging to a Pakistani family; using identity cards issued prior to the establishment of NADRA; using CNICs of deceased persons issued prior to 2004 who lacked biometric data; using CNICs of women who obtained ID cards without photos before 2012; and patronage of notables and facilitation by locals.
Afsar maintained that NADRA was continuously improving its verification process to ensure CNICs were only issued to genuine citizens and non-nationals did not intrude into Pakistani families.
The panel was also briefed by Passport and Immigration Director General Mustafa Jamal Kazi, who acknowledged some delays to issuing passports to Mehsud tribesmen in Karachi. He said the issue had arisen because rules required citizens to obtain their first passport in their respective district, while the tribesmen were obtaining their passports in Karachi.
The additional director general of Pakistan Coast Guards, meanwhile, told the committee the organization had seized 19.25 tons of narcotics in the past year and stopped 2,555 migrants, including Pakistanis, Afghans, Iranians and Nigerians, from crossing the coastal area illegally.
Illegal SIMs
Also on Wednesday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced the arrest of five people from Peshawar in a joint raid with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Circle. In a statement, it claimed the suspects were issuing illegal SIMs against Afghan passports through a telecom franchise.
“Reportedly, the franchise was being run by an Afghan national and the activated SIMs were being sold to Afghan nationals for Rs. 3,000 each,” it said, adding five laptops and eight mobile phones with scanned passport data were also seized.