National registration policy on the cards

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi directed the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) on Thursday to prepare a national registration policy to curb the issuance of fake Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) and passports and to achieve the target of registration of the entire population.

Chairing a review meeting regarding NADRA, the minister stressed that the authenticity of the CNIC and the citizenship was of utmost importance, therefore, a comprehensive policy should be evolved to make the registration transparent and fool-proof.

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“The new policy will prevent illegal registration of citizenship,” the interior minister said while issuing the directive for making the national registration policy. He pointed out that the instances of issuance of identity cards and passports to foreigners had come to light.

The interior minister’s direction came on the heels of NADRA Chairman Lt-Gen Munir Afsar’s admission before a Senate committee that some NADRA staff and external factors were involved in the issuance of fake CNICs to aliens.

In October 2023, the NADRA chief, while appearing before the Senate standing committee on Interior, had said that the illegal residents had succeededed in becoming part of native family trees by offering bribes to the family members.

During the meeting, NADRA officials informed that currently, the country’s 85% population had been registered with the authority. However, the minister emphasised that NADRA should take steps to achieve the target of 100% registration.

The minister stressed the need for building consensus among all the provinces regarding the new registration policy. He stated that union councils were the basic units and NADRA’s access to union councils was necessary in this regard.

Besides developing the national registration policy, the minister also reviewed the plan to increase NADRA centres in six major cities. Apart from Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, it was decided to include Multan in this plan.

Naqvi said that the plan should be finalised and implemented in the next few days so that people could avoid unnecessary rush and hassle. Also, he said, NADRA counters should be established at the service centres for the convenience of the people.

An official statement said that the minister’s recent visits of different NADRA centres and subsequent measures led to reducing the waiting time from 120 minutes to 75 minutes. However, it added, the minister directed to take measures to further reduce the waiting time.

Interior Secretary Khurram Ali Agha, the NADRA chairman, and senior officers participated in the meeting. Naqvi formed a committee to resolve the issue of registering father’s name instead of husband’s name on the passport of married women.

Naqvi, while taking notice of the issue of registering father’s name instead of husband’s name on the passport of the married women directed the committee, to be led by the interior secretary, to resolve the issue by submitting a workable solution.