NADRA panel to probe harassment charges against deputy chairman

Action taken on the intervention of PM’s Office

ISLAMABAD: After the Prime Minister’s Office had intervened, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) formed a fact-finding board to probe into allegations of harassment against the authority’s deputy chairman.wome

The board is composed of directors-general Mir Ajam Khan Durrani and Zulfiqar Ali and Col Abidur Rehman, the head of vigilance directorate.

Syed Muhammad Zubair – who identified himself as the uncle of a junior officer working at NADRA Headquarters in Islamabad – had filed a complaint at the PM’s Office.



Zubair raised questions about the character and morality of NADRA’s Deputy Chairman Syed Muzaffar Ali, alleging he was involved in harassing women staffers.

The application stated that the deputy chairman first tried to lure his niece but when she rejected his advances, he trapped her in false departmental inquiries.

The complainant said that he had recently met the NADRA deputy chairman in a bid to get the matter resolved.



“During the meeting, he insisted that I should file my niece’s resignation and in return, he would close all pending inquiries against her,” Zubair said of the deputy chairman.

In his application, Zubair requested the PM’s Office to order an impartial inquiry into the matter.

The PM Office promptly sent the application to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for necessary action.



The FIA, in its letter addressed to chairman NADRA, stated: “It is requested to conduct a fact-finding inquiry by fixing responsibility against the delinquent person(s) and if any criminality is found, the same may be sent to this agency for further necessary action as per law.”

The victim who is working as deputy assistant director in NADRA said she had received a letter from the inquiry board, asking her to file a written statement. She said she would soon submit her statement.

The woman said she had not only been denied promotions, but falsely implicated in several internal inquiries also, including stealing CNICs and submitting fake medical bills, amounting to Rs9,000.



She said she was denied promotion by a NADRA board of which Deputy Chairman Syed Muzaffar Ali was a part. She said NADRA had referred an inquiry against her to FIA because she refused to back down from the case of workplace harassment.

The deputy chairman refused to comment on the matter, insisting that this correspondent should contact the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson for an official viewpoint.

However, the Interior Ministry spokesperson did not respond to several calls made to him. He was then sent a text message, which too remained unanswered.