Chips with everything

Pakistan is moving towards an increasing dependence on smart technologies. Some predictors are saying that the ubiquity of smart devices is reaching a point in the developed world where a smart device is going to be essential for daily living. Pakistan is some way from that point but with the growth of internet availability and the massive market for smart phones, the relationship between the populace and the many services it needs to access, rich and poor alike, is rapidly evolving. Internet shopping and banking are expanding and it is no surprise that the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) have digitised the CNIC, indeed this is a move that we welcome.

Unfortunately new technologies are not always glitch-free and around 7,000 of the new smart identity cards have been issued with a built-in flaw. They have been found, once they had been issued, to bear the identity tracking number instead of the CNIC number — a fundamental error. The faulty cards had been dispatched across the country and although a remedy is ‘in process’ it is estimated that quite apart from the inconvenience of having to wait for a new card the exercise is going to cost NADRA one million rupees.

This is no trivial matter. The cards issued by NADRA are essential to individuals and not only to prove who they are but to access an increasing range of government services. There has been a lapse of quality control that is unsettling. Already it is being suggested that there has been ‘negligence’ on the part of quality-control staff regarding Standard Operating Procedures and internal routines. Smart CNICs were introduced with much fanfare in 2012, with the new SNICs supposedly having 30 security features and the chip that would enable them to function as an ATM and an insurance card. These technologies can only expand and diversify and it is essential that quality control is rigorous if the system is not to fall into chaos and disrepute. For NADRA it is a wakeup call. Heed it.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2017.

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