Opposition leaders in a session of the upper house of parliament on Wednesday asked questions about the recruitment of retired officers of the armed forces to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
A written reply was submitted to the Senate by the Ministry of Interior stating that 13,997 employees are working in NADRA, and no retired or present service employee of the armed forces is working in NADRA on deputation.
Speaking during the Senate session, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami said that the response was "incomplete" and demanded to know how many such individuals had been employed at the database authority.
Senator Ahmed said that a large number of young people are looking for jobs and there are none for them.
PML-N's Senator Azam Nazir Tarar said that he had received information that army officers are working in NADRA as directors and deputy directors.
Tarar asked for what purpose, in what period and in what numbers were retired military officers recruited and whether these military officers were recruited in NADRA on quota or on merit.
The PML-N senator further asked what the additional qualifications of the retired officers recruited in NADRA are and demanded to know details of assignments given to them.
Responding to the queries, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan asked the senators to submit the questions afresh, so the Ministry of Interior could reply accordingly.
Meanwhile, there was ruckus in the upper house of Parliament, as senators lashed out at the government for not presenting the National Security Policy (NSP) in the Senate.
"What sort of a policy is this that the parliament did not get a chance to debate over? The parliament has not even seen this policy," Senator Sherry Rehman said, chiding the government.
Leader of the House for the Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem said the NSP was presented to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, but the Opposition decided to boycott the session.
He noted that when "the men in uniform come to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security meeting, then the Opposition rushed to attend it".
In response, the Opposition members protested in front of the senate chairman's dias and then staged a token walkout. Later, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani was able to restore order to the house.
The National Security Committee (NSC) on Monday approved Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) 2022-2026, and on Tuesday, it received the federal cabinet's nod as well.