Nadra officer remanded for illegally issuing CNICs

A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded an official of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to jail in a case pertaining to illegally issuing Pakistan’s identity cards to foreigners.

The FIA presented Govari Shankar, who is deputy director at Nadra, before East district judicial magistrate Mukesh Kumar on the expiry of the suspect’s physical remand. The investigation officer, Inspector Waqar Hussain, presented a progress report on the probe to the judge, stating that the suspect was the deputy director operations at Nadra’s regional headquarters in Karachi and was involved in illegally issuing computerised national identity cards to non-residents through corrupt practices and corruption.

He added that Shankar was taken into custody on September 14 on information from a spy from the Nursery furniture market on Sharea Faisal, and he was subsequently taken to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle for interrogation.

He said that before his arrest, suspect had been hiding to evade an internal inquiry of Nadra into the corrupt scheme. The IO said that efforts were being made to apprehend an accomplice of the suspect, Yasir Zeb, assistant director agencies support cell, as he had also been on the run to prevent his arrest.

He added that Zeb had taken around Rs1 million in bribe from Shankar on the pretext of screening him from the FIA during the inquiry. The judge granted the FIA officer two weeks to complete the investigation and ordered him to submit a charge sheet in the court on the next hearing.