NADRA team arrested for issuing fake IDs

Unaware of the crew’s whereabouts, police had registered a case of kidnapping.

ISLAMABAD:

A NADRA team was taken into police custody for issuing fake ID cards to Rawalpindi residents. The five member crew, including two women, was arrested by the Civil Lines police near Pakistan Town on Thursday.

Earlier, unaware of the crew’s whereabouts, NADRA Islamabad’s Deputy Director Mobile Registration Unit Muhammad Saqib had filed a complaint with Koral police that the registration team was intercepted and kidnapped by armed men riding a car bearing registration number AKD 271. The crew included the van driver Muhammad Ateeq, a guard, supervisor and two female officers.

The Koral police registered a case of kidnapping only to find out later that the crew was being detained for questioning by the Civil Lines police in Rawalpindi, who had filed a criminal case against the five officials.

The Civil Lines police said that the NADRA mobile registration unit was intercepted after a resident of Pakistan Town in Rawalpindi, Niaz Ahmed Kiani, filed a complaint that the officials of NADRA’s mobile registration unit were registering “bogus” identity cards to people of
his area.

The Koral police said they have sent a copy of the FIR, filed by NADRA’s deputy director mobile registration unit, to the Civil Lines police and will wait for the outcome of their investigation before proceeding with the kidnapping case.

The Civil Lines police are in a difficult situation as they are likely to face legal action if they fail to provide strong evidence against the NADRA crew, said a police official requesting not to be named. Another police source suspected that some “unknown force” was behind the arrest of the NADRA team as the police could not move on “a mere application against the crew members”.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2011.