Sending data on Dar to NAB costs NADRA officer his job

NADRA was directed to assign a senior officer to courier by-hand the requisite info to NAB investigators

ISLAMABAD: The services of a senior National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officer were terminated just a day after he dispatched ‘top secret’ information about a family member of federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

NAB’s Lahore regional office had sought the information in question in connection with the probe against Ishaq Dar.

It is learnt that NADRA was directed to assign “a senior officer…to courier by-hand the requisite information to investigators in NAB Lahore”.



NADRA Headquarters Data Warehouse Director Qaboos Aziz was assigned this task by the chairman of the authority and a letter to this effect was issued bearing prefixes ‘most immediate’ and ‘top secret’.

The information was needed in connection with investigations in a reference filed by NAB in the accountability court on September 8 against Ishaq Dar.

Specifically, the information was about Dar’s daughter, who lives in the UK.

The package was handed over to NAB investigators by Aziz on August 21.

On August 23, he was handed a termination letter without assigning any particular reason. He served NADRA for 17 years. There was also no pending inquiry against him.



“It is to inform you that your service contract is hereby terminated with immediate effect”.

When The Express Tribune tried to get his comments, the officer in question refused to comment, saying that the matter was sub-judice because he had challenged his termination in the Islamabad High Court.

Attached with the petition filed by Aziz is an affidavit for the court’s record in which he lists the events leading up to his termination.

He claimed that just a day before his termination, he had been asked to meet NADRA’s Director-General (Projects) Zulfiqar Ali.

The Projects DG had informed him that Aziz enjoyed cordial relations with the deputy chairman of NADRA, Muzaffar Ali. “I was told by the Projects DG that I should try to persuade the deputy chairman to voluntarily resign from his post. In case of failure, I was informed that I will be terminated from service.”



“I was assured by the Projects DG that if I manage to convince the deputy chairman to resign, my service will not be in danger,” the affidavit stated.

The Projects DG, the affidavit stated, is very close to NADRA Chairman Usman Yousuf Mobeen.

The affidavit stated that Qaboos was surprised when he heard the demand as it was “completely unexpected”.

However, the very next day, on August 23, he was handed over his termination letter that too without assigning any valid reason.

Qaboos had joined NADRA in 2001 as a database administrator.

Despite repeated attempts, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal could not be contacted for comment.

 

According to a statement released by Nadra, Qaboos Aziz a former employee, was not a permanent employee but on contract with the institution. 

Apropos to this news item, Nadra clarified that Aziz's services were terminated as per termination clause 13 included in his employment contract.

The clarification further stated that, in accordance with his contract, Aziz and all other Nadra employees were given the option to either remain on contract or avail regularisation of their employment under the "Regularisation Scheme-2012".

The former employee, however, opted for contractual terms and conditions and in accordance, signed an affidavit saying so.

The statement further added that under clause 13 of the said employment contract, that authority at Nadra reserve the right to end an employment contract on three-month notice or terminate services with immediate effect with three months’ salary as compensation.