Bipartisan: Review panel formed over blocked CNICs

Federal government constitutes an 18-member committee to re-examine issue of blocked CNICs

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has constituted an 18-member committee to re-examine the issue of blocked Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).

The committee is made up exclusively of National Assembly members representing different political parties. Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi heads the panel.

The committee is mandated to oversee National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) national re-verification programme, besides supervising the handling of CNICs blocked by NADRA and disposing public complaints in this regard.



Seven members, including Tahir Aurangzeb, Shaikh Rohale Asghar, Rajab Ali Khan Baloch, Mian Abdul Mannan, Malik Ibrar Ahmed, Dr Ibadullah and Khalid Hussain Magsi are drawn from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Abdul Qahar Khan of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Maulana Ameer Zaman of the JUI-F, National Party’s Sardar Kamal Khan Bangalzai, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s Dr Imran Khattak, Ghulam Mustafa Shah of Pakistan Peoples Party, Ghulam Bilour of the Awami National Party, Sheikh Salahuddin of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Aftab Sherpao of Qaumi Wattan Party, Jamat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah and Al-Hajj Shahjee Gul Afridi from FATA are also included in the committee.

According to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as many as 86,380 ‘intruders’ were identified upon the completion of the six-month-long re-verification campaign while approximately 450,000 CNICs were blocked over the past three and a half years.

 Restoration of blocked CNICs has been a chronic issue for the past couple of years.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2017.