Nisar promises seamless CNIC re-verification

Process will be completed within six months, says interior minister

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday assured his compatriots that the exercise to re-verify all Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) will be completed in the next six months, pledging that no inconvenience will be caused during or after.

“This is the most difficult challenge but I will do it as I had done [the] biometric verification of SIMs despite facing hardships,” he told reporters at Kallar Syedan in Rawalpindi.



Nisar said that citizens will not be made to stand in long queues for re-verification of their CNICs, adding that the exercise was at its initial stages and the flow of information had already begun.

“In the first phase of re-verification of CNICs all family heads – who are 25 million in number – will get SMS on cellular phones in which they will be forwarded their family-tree.

“In case the family head determines that there is no extra person in his family-tree, he will not be required to respond to the SMS. However, he is required to reply to the SMS if someone other than his family has been counted as his family member,” he added.



The minister said in case the family head detects some alien in his family tree he will be required to approach the nearest office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

“In the second phase of this exercise which is linked with the national security, all SIM owners, who are 100 million in number, will get a text to verify their family members. The data of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is being used for this purpose,” he added. Nisar announced that citizens who help to identify foreigners in possession of Pakistani identity cards will be entitled to a reward. “A sum of Rs10,000 will be given as a reward,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2016.