Interior Minister of Pakistan, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, has approved the process of re-verification of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) all over the country. The drive will start from 1st July 2016 declared in a meeting today.
On 25th May 2016, Chaudhry Nisar gave a 48-hour deadline to NADRA asking them to prepare a roadmap for the verification of each Pakistani. A week later, Interior Minister displayed his softer side to the fake CNIC holders as he issued them all a deadline of 2 months to surrender their fake CNIC otherwise they will be facing a penalty of as many as 7 years in jail. On 6th June 2016, he provided NADRA a roadmap for the re-verification of CNICs.
In a meeting today at Islamabad which was chaired by Chaudhry Nisar, he gave 6 months deadline to NADRA for the re-verification of CNICs. The meeting was also attended by some senior officials along with NADRA Chairman, NACTA National Coordinator and Interior Secretary.
The Interior Minister was made aware of the fact that the training required for the overall re-verification process is also completed. Moreover, he was also informed that NADRA has established the needed helpline capable of handling 10,000 calls per day and a gateway of 150,000 SMS per day to assist general public who would report suspected CNICs issued to strangers.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chaudhry Nisar is a strong adherent of this exercise to retrieve the national dignity worldwide. While giving the deadline he stated that:
“It is an important milestone pertaining to national security”
Chaudhry Nisar said that side by side with this multi-pronged exercise, the input by Joint Verification Committees will continue to identify aliens who have illegally acquired CNICs. The overall re-verification exercise will start from 1st July 2016.
Interior minister also said that NADRA must also give timeline for the finalization of all cases, involving blockage of CNICs. He held that this re-verification would prevent recurrence of Mullah Mansour episode again. He also directed NADRA to ensure utilization of all its resources to achieve the desired objective of removing aliens from NADRA’s data base within the given timeline.
Moreover, Chaudhry Nisar approved the media strategy of NADRA for raising the awareness of the general masses. He said that CNIC re-verification awareness campaign should also be launched in local ethnic languages.
