Pakistan decides to verify CNICs of all citizens

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has decided to carry out verification process of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) of all Pakistanis again, federal minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday.

The decision comes in the aftermath of Taliban leader Mullah Mansour’s death in a drone attack in Balochistan with his Pakistani ID card and passport found a short distance from his car which was targeted by the unmanned aircraft.

“Illegal CNICs has caused us to face an emergency-like situation,” Nisar said after chairing a high-level meeting with National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) officials.

“Institutions responsible for national security will cooperate for verification and non-verification of CNICs,” he added.

Nisar Ali Khan ordered the NADRA officials to come up with a road map to carry out the verification process within two days.

According to a report published in The News, over 45,000 foreigners were issued Pakistani CNICs since 2005 alone.

The country’s top registration authority, Nadra, allegedly issued these cards to nationals of China, United States, India, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Uzbek, Maldives, Morocco, Bangladesh and Burma, putting national security at a greater risk, revealed official documents.

Shocking revelations came at a time when the country’s top security czar Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan confirmed that Nadra blocked over 0.23 million suspicious national identity cards in past five years. Either these CNICs were issued to foreigners or Pakistanis.

More than 650 officials of Nadra allegedly issued these tens of thousands of CNICs to foreign nationals, majority of them were ‘unregistered Afghan refugees’ during this period, officials assigned to investigate this scam claimed.

Nadra issued to Pakistani CNICs to 21 Chinese citizens, 29 Indians, 236 Iranians, one American, 111 Bengali and Burmese, seven Moroccan, three Uzbeks, two Maldivians, one Senegal citizen, 13 Egyptian and around 40, 000 Afghans got Pakistani cards, revealed official documents also exclusively obtained by Geo TV and The News.

After expanding scope of investigation into this scam, top registration body’s officials claimed that they have blocked around 40, 000 CNICs issued to Afghan citizens since 2005.