Govt denies bias in CNICs verification

Express Tribune

4 days ago

Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry has said that the government has taken robust measures to curb the misuse of identity documents and emphasised that no provincial discrimination occurred during the national verification campaigns of family trees and Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).
Responding to questions from senators during the upper house session the other day, the minister stated that over 5,000 passports issued to individuals falsely claiming Pakistani nationality were detected abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, and subsequently surrendered by the holders themselves, admitting they were not Pakistani citizens.
Chaudhry said that investigations showed many of these identities were fraudulently inserted into family trees—either by NADRA staff involved in malpractice or by families deliberately including non-nationals for personal motives.
He added that such fraudulent additions not only led to the issuance of CNICs but also facilitated the procurement of Pakistani passports for foreign nationals.
To curb this misuse, nationwide verification campaigns were conducted by the Ministry of Interior in 2014 and 2019, aiming to cleanse the national database and validate family records. Furthermore, the government has set up a dual verification mechanism involving a district-level committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner and a Zonal Verification Board, which reviews flagged cases referred by law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
Talal informed the house that no province-specific action was taken. "NADRA operates on a national basis, and we do not treat any region differently," he said. He acknowledged that the highest instances of identity misuse were observed in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but emphasized that the issue was not rooted in regional bias, rather in misuse of the system by certain individuals.
To enhance transparency, NADRA also launched a public facilitation system, enabling citizens to verify their family trees via phone, and to report any unauthorised individuals linked to their records. Out of the total complaints received, 71,000 cases involved reports of individuals being included in family trees without consent.
Chaudhry also confirmed that internal accountability measures have been taken, with 266 NADRA employees dismissed and others penalized following departmental inquiries. He stressed that officers across all ranks, including deputy directors, were held accountable, and criminal proceedings were initiated where necessary.
He reassured the House that any case highlighted by parliamentarians would be re-examined and re-verified.