Interior Ministry decides to verify CNICs of all Pakistanis again

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.

“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.

The Interior Ministry’s decision to re-verify CNICs has come after Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s assassination by a US drone in Balochistan. He was carrying a Pakistani ID and passport.

In an investigation carried out by The News, it was learnt that 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.

— File photo by Reuters