Nisar orders to suspend Nadra, Mastercard agreement

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has ordered to immediately suspend Nadra and Mastercard agreement aimed at enabling Pakistani nationals to use their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) to carry out financial transactions and receive government disbursements.

This announcement in this regard was made at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017 taking place between January 17 and 20 in Davos, Switzerland. With agreement taking effect, Nadra card could be used for financial transactions.

The interior minister said the agreement was made without a written permission by the government and without any consultation with stake-holders. "Sensitive security matters were not kept in view while signing the agreement," he said.

Nisar questioned as to under which rules a foreign company was being given access to Nadra database. He also sought an explanation from Nadra regarding the agreement with Mastercard.

The deal was made after Mastercard - a leading global payments and technology company - announced a strategic collaboration with Nadra Technologies Limited - a subsidiary of the authority.

Speaking at the meeting, Mastercard Country Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan Aurangzaib Khan had said the collaboration with Nadra Technologies Limited was a testament to their commitment towards building a secure ecosystem for online payments in Pakistan.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mastercard was to use its next-generation payment processing technologies to process all online payments by Pakistani citizens for the issuance of CNICs, passports or any other document provisioned by Nadra Technologies Limited.