Nadra’s ‘hospitality’ knows no bounds

‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Wednesday

KARACHI: How come a fake identity card was issued to Mulla Akhtar Mansoor? This is a question that Nadra has to answer since the world is laughing at us over the ease with which fake identity documents are issued in this country, said Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News programme, ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, on Wednesday.

Once Mulla Akhtar Mansoor had the fake identity card, getting a passport was no big deal, and there was no stopping Mulla Akhtar Mansoor from undertaking overseas trips.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that the issue of fake identity cards in Balochistan is becoming a complex issue because a majority of those who possess the 45,000 fake identity cards issued by Nadra in the last 10 years belong to Balochistan.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that Nadra is claiming that the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party is putting pressure on the authority to stop it from verifying the credentials of some suspects in the areas which are under the sway of the party, including the area of Qilla Abdullah.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that Balochistan DG Nadra has informed his chairman that the provincial ministers of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Hamid Khan Achakzai and Abdul Rahim, and Members of the Balochistan Assembly, Majeed Khan Achakzai, Liaquat Agha and Nasrullah Ziaray, have been trying to prevent Nadra from doing its job.

However, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party legislators in the Balochistan Assembly have alleged that Nadra has been issuing fake identity cards to Afghan officials after getting money from them.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that it is interesting to note that when Mulla Akhtar Mansoor was issued the fake identity card in 2002 in Qilla Abdullah, Mahmood Khan Achakzai happened to be an elected member of the provincial assembly.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that while confirming the death of Mulla Akhtar Mansoor, the Afghan Taliban have appointed Mulla Haibatullah as their new leader. It is likely that the dissident Afghan Taliban would also endorse the appointment of Mulla Haibatullah because the Taliban consider him as as their mentor.

Meanwhile, the Afghan peace process is once again at crossroads with the induction of a new Taliban leader.

Commenting on the issue of PanamaLeaks, Shahzeb Khanzada said that nobody knows how the issue would evolve since the matter is in a stalemate at the moment.

He said that in the first meeting of the TORs committee, the government and opposition have presented their respective TORs though the two sides are yet to decide on the creation of a commission and its jurisdiction. 

In a different segment of the programme, Shahzeb Khanzada said that Pervez Musharraf’s associates are now realizing that his political party has no future. A close associate of Musharraf, Aasia Ishaq, along with 16 others, have joined Mustafa Kamal’s Pak Sarzameen Party.

Aasia Ishaq, while talking to Shahzeb Khanzada on the programme, said that her joining the Pak Sarzameen Party is not a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Pervez Musharraf. It’s simply that the All Pakistan Muslim League has failed to promote Musharraf’s vision of “Pakistan First”. 

Aasia Ishaq said that due to the politically motivated cases against Pervez Musharraf, the former president could not lead the APML from the front. She said that she still stands by Pervez Musharraf and his policies because they were in the interests of Pakistan.

Pervez Musharraf will again return to the country and face the courts just as he did previously.

She said that history will remember the All Pakistan Muslim League as a failed project because the party could not deliver though you cannot call it Pervez Musharraf’s failure.

Aasia Ishaq said that Mustafa Kamal has proved his political merit by setting up party offices and holding public meetings in just two months’ time.

Hamid Khan Achakzai, a leader of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, while talking to Shahzeb on the programme, refuted Nadra’s allegation that his party men were preventing the authority from doing its job.

He said that if somebody thinks that they were involved in issuance of fake identity cards, then they should provide evidence.

“We are considered aliens at the time of applying for an identity card and unnecessarily hassled. There is one law for obtaining an identity card in the country while another for Balochistan. All the Afghan refugees have identity cards, and nobody can stop them from obtaining an identity card,” he said.

Senior analyst Tahir Khan said that the new chief of the Afghan Taliban, Mulla Haibatullah Akhunzada, is a non-political person. The Afghan Taliban think that he is the only person who can end factionalism in Taliban ranks.

He held the Afghan government and America responsible for disrupting the Afghan peace talks. The American drone attack has aggravated the situation.

Tahir Khan said that it is wrong to think that one man takes all the decisions among the Taliban. The fact is that they take all their decisions collectively.