The whole affair does nothing for Pakistan’s image. We must remember that it was only two years ago that another tabloid broke the news of the spot-fixing scandal, which placed three leading Pakistani cricketers behind bars. The evidence presented by the tabloid was able to stand before the UK court. The immediate reaction on the part of Pakistan’s chief of the Olympics mission has been to deny the newspaper’s story. He has said that there are only 39 participants and officials from Pakistan in the Olympics village. But this does not make it clear if others may have travelled on visas citing Olympics participation. Such events have occurred before — with ‘bogus’ Pakistani athletes visiting foreign countries and then vanishing.
The tabloid has also suggested that some of the persons entering the UK could be terrorists. This may, or may not, be accurate. Certainly further investigations are needed. The president of Pakistan is said to have taken serious notice of the issue with six NADRA officials having been suspended. A joint investigation team has also been set up. We will need to see where these findings lead. But the fact is that for now, Pakistan once more stands in the dock despite all the denials being made.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (6)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Mirza Its nothing wrong to get away from land of feudals where poors people are like just counts numbers and nothing else .... just leave the country before u leave the world.
We were proud of NADRA and it was considered a credible organisation.I am disappointed NADRA's reputition is on the line.Can head of NADRA please resign? Can thorough review be please carried out to identify any potential loop holes in NADRA system.I would not like any way to use identity of any of my dead relitive.Seriously worried.
its nothing new man now fuedals of pakistan became a visa agents too its been going on many years ....
This is what we Pakistanis love to say. This is a conspiracy against Pakistan and Muslims by the big bad West. They are afraid of our bombs, power, progress and the spread of Islam in the world. The history shows that Pakistanis have never been involved in any wrong activities and been law-abiding. The day is not far away when Muslims would be majority in Europe. We ignore that most of the terrorists are active in Pakistan and we provide them safe havens. We were caught with OBL in our army base and not a single soul has been accountable. In fact all our efforts have been to plug the holes that led the US to discover the presence of OBL.
Yet another shameful deed which paints the pakistanis in a negative light. Why cant we be more vigilant in our actions