PTI criticises state bodies for issuing CNICs to foreigners

Until recently, about 1,600 Afghan nationals were part of voters’ lists for NA-48 and NA-49

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday criticised the state institutions for issuing Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) to foreigners empowering them to cast votes.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Hussain said it’s not about the winning of candidates nor mandates, rather, it’s about the corrupt state institutions that allowed foreigners to bribe their way into Pakistan’s database.

As a result, they became part of the balloting process, he added.



A recent inquiry made by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) revealed that some 1,585 Afghan nationals, who managed to acquire Pakistani identity cards through fraudulent measures, cast votes in general elections and later in a by-election in the capital’s constituency.

Until recently, these Afghan nationals were part of the voters’ lists for two National Assembly constituencies in Islamabad – NA-48 and NA-49 – however the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has now been informed to cancel the foreigners’ votes.

A former PTI leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi won elections from NA-48 held on May 11, 2013 by securing 73,878 votes. Hashmi later vacated the seat, which was then won by PTI candidate Asad Umar in by-elections. Total registered voters in NA-48 are 292,142, of them some 173,968 cast their votes, according to ECP. This constituency consists of urban areas of the federal capital.



Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Dr Tariq Fazl Chaudhry, who is currently Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division, was elected from NA-49 by obtaining 94,106 votes. Total registered voters were 334,241, of which 216,008 voted in 2013.

The details about Afghan nationals surfaced during recent re-verification of voters’ lists by NADRA in Islamabad.

This scribe tried to contact Tariq Fazl Chaudhry but he was not available for comment.

A 2015 report of the country’s premier intelligence agency had unearthed that NADRA’s employees in the past provided national identity cards to Afghans and other nationals against a petty bribe of Rs10,000 to Rs20,000.



During the ongoing National Re-verification Programme initiated by the interior ministry, thousands of CNICs of foreigners have been blocked. The programme was initiated after recovery of CNICs from senior Taliban and Al-Qaeda members killed inside Pakistan during military operations and US drone attacks.

On Saturday [April 15], federal interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while addressing a news conference, revealed that a total of 174,184 identity cards issued to ‘confirmed aliens’ had been cancelled so far during ongoing re-verification drive.