100,000 CNICs blocked in one year

Interior minister says some MPs involved in malpractices at NADRA

ISLAMABAD:

Authorities in the federal capital have blocked around 100,000 computerised national identity cards, including those issued illegally to foreigners, in the past year alone.

The number is considered significant because only 400 identity cards were blocked during the entire five-year term of the previous government.



Sharing details about the blocked CNICs in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said the action was not taken against any particular community or section of society. The computerised national identity cards (CNICs) have been blocked in every province.

The security czar also revealed that some parliamentarians had helped appoint some foreigners in the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). But at the same time, he gave them benefit of the doubt, claiming they might have been unaware that those people were foreign nationals.

Though the interior minister did not name anyone, he said he could share the information with the Senate chairman or the National Assembly speaker.





Nisar told the House that over 200 NADRA employees were expelled while dozens more were sent to jails over the issue. He added that 73 new card issuance centres would be set up irrespective of political affiliations.

The minister, who also looks after the passports department, said 13 large passport offices would be set up according to international standards across the country. Home delivery of passports has already been started in four cities and would soon be expanded to other areas.

He claimed that VIP culture at NADRA had ended and even the requests for sending staff to take biometric details of the families of president and prime minster had been turned down.



Performance of ministers

Nisar also came up with a brave idea of inviting the opposition to evaluate the performance of federal ministers from next assembly session.

He volunteered to be the first minister to submit his performance report in the house for members to give their input. “Accountability, criticism and proposals to improve performance of ministries will enhance confidence of the people in the performance of this House,” he said while calling for a decision to be taken during the business advisory committee of next session.

The interior minister recalled a similar initiative taken by Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf to oversee performance of his cabinet ministers on his proposal a few months ago. The process had stopped but Nisar said he would take up the issue again.



However, keeping in view the vast ambit of his ministry, he asked the lawmakers to question his legal and constitutional duties but refrain from discussing the law and order situation, which partly falls in the domain of the provincial governments.

The proceedings of the lower house of parliament were cut short due to lack of quorum, which was pointed out by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Dr Shireen Mazari.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2015.