Pakistani database authority admits minor violations as Senate report says IDs issued to militants

KARACHI: Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has rejected accusations that the body issued millions of unauthorized national identity cards (CNIC), including to members of banned militant outfits, calling this a “travesty of facts” but admitting to “procedural violations” in a negligible number of cases.
Last week, a report submitted by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior alleged that an Al Qaeda commander named Abdullah Baloch, who counterterrorism police say has defected to Daesh, was among several members of banned outfits who had obtained CNICs through NADRA.
The controversy began in July when a Sindh province director at the Federal Investigation Agency, Amir Farooqi, told media that up to four million CNICs had been issued to “unauthorized persons” at NADRA centers in Karachi. Farooqi also said NADRA employees had helped militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, and Baloch separatist outfits get ID cards in exchange for bribes.
According to the Senate report, 12 NADRA officials had been arrested and 29 suspended in relation to the case.
A NADRA spokesperson told Arab News the body’s chairman Tariq Malik had formed a committee to look into the FIA director’s accusations.
“Subsequently, the committee’s analysis revealed that a total 592,645 Fresh CNICs were processed from Data Acquisition Units (DAUs) located in Karachi division since 2018 till date,” the spokesperson said. “Whereas the total number of 2,370,890 fresh CNICS were processed from DAUs located in Sindh other than Karachi Division during the same period. Keeping such statistics and analysis in view, the statement issued by the Director FIA turned out to be a hyperbolic conjecture and travesty of facts.”
To a question about CNICs issued to members of banned militant groups, the NADRA spokesperson said:
“The aforesaid Committee evaluated 235,659 fresh cases out of which only 1284 cases were found suspect on account of procedural violation which is 0.54 percent of the analyzed cases.”
He said after receiving the findings of the committee, NADRA had initiated inquiries against 39 employees.
“The inquiries against the suspended employees are under process and will be concluded by the end of October,” the spokesperson said. “NADRA has devised and implemented new business rules and checks which eventually have plugged holes in the processing system.”