Hindering surveillance: NADRA suspends access of its services to K-P police

Police asked to route their request through interior ministry

PESHAWAR: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) have suspended the access of its various services, such as Vehicle Verification System, to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police.

NADRA has asked the K-P police to route their request through Ministry for Interior and Narcotics Control, Islamabad.

“Unfortunately, the provision of these services directly to the K-P police has been either revoked or restricted by NADRA,” a senior police officer told The Express Tribune.

He added since these services were being used in investigation, the process of making requests for each query through the Ministry for Interior and Narcotics Control would become a cumbersome task. The officer maintained it will also delay the investigation and jeopardise security of the public.

The relevant authorities need to realise that the restoration of direct access of these services will help the police in investigating cases.

While speaking to The Express Tribune, NADRA K-P Director General Gohar Marwat said NADRA falls under the Ministry of Interior which provides services to the security institutions. He added some institutions were using these services through National Counter Terrorism Authority or Ministry of Interior.



Marwat said NADRA was providing these services to K-P free of cost but now the former has asked the K-P police to put forward requests through the interior ministry.

“However, all the services are not suspended for the police as some are still open,” he said. “Many services availed by the K-P police are commercial, but some of them are specialised which need money to carry on.”

This change of procedure is going to have far-reaching implications on checking, monitoring and surveillance of suspects, militants and terrorists. IGP Nasir Durrani has taken up the case with the interior ministry so that direct access is restored.

Pros of services

As per figures collected by K-P Central Police Office, over two million vehicles have been checked through the services of NADRA’s Vehicle Verification System over the last two years. The system led to the recovery of thousands of those vehicles that ply the roads without documents or were snatched or stolen.

Moreover, more than 50,000 people have been checked through NADRA’s Criminal Record Verification in parts of the province, particularly border areas, while over 0.9 million persons have been checked through the authority’s Identity Verification System to check whether they were involved in criminal activities.

A vital system

K-P is the most vulnerable province because of its geostrategic location. Hundreds of individuals are crossing the Pak-Afghan border, Torkham, and move between settled and tribal areas on a daily basis.

Therefore, to verify the backgrounds of people moving across the border daily, the K-P police have launched numerous IT services to scrutinise and verify on the spot the credentials of suspects in liaison with NADRA. The systems through which the police was doing this, included Identity Verification, Integrated with Online Verification, Vehicle Verification and Criminal Verification.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2016.