In a latest development, the Chairman of National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) Usman Mobin has revealed that the authority has dismissed around 600 NADRA employees on charges of issuing CNICs illegally. The move came into effect after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar called for re-verification drive of CNICs across the country. He said that anyone involved in issuing fake and bogus CNICs to foreigners should be dealt with severity.
On Thursday, the chairman of NADRA spoke to the Senate’s Functional Committee on less developed regions. While chairing the committee, Senator Mir Kabir was told that a grand number of 160,286 CNICs have been issued to the foreigners or non-residents of the country.
“We have removed over 600 employees after conducting several inquiries into the illegal issuance of CNICs to aliens”
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Around 500 sacked employees were data entry operators
Upon the question from Senator Nisar Muhammed about the people who got laid off, Usman Mobin answered that almost 500 of the employees were positioned as data entry operators. In return, the committee inquired about their salaries to which Usman Mobin replied that an operator usually gets Rs20,000.
The surprising part was when the committee asked the chairman about his salary to which he reluctantly responded that it was a hefty sum of Rs800,000.
After listening to the answer of Usman Mobin, the committee advised him to:
“Financially empower the Nadra employees to avert any corruption and wrongdoing in the system”
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Fake CNICs – A major concern
While explaining the further details, Usman Mobin shared some more numbers with the committee. The threat is extensive and has been spread across the country. He disclosed that 160,286 CNICs have been confirmed as non-residents which had been discovered across Pakistan.
As he shared the numbers with the committee, he broke it down region-wise:
41,554 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
40,042 in Sindh
38,063 in Punjab
24,503 in Balochistan
7,046 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata)
6,149 in Islamabad
1,973 in Kashmir
835 people from abroad
121 in Gilgit-Baltistan
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Moreover, he also disclosed that around 78,939 inauthentic cases have been discovered in the re-verification drive. It is noteworthy to state that 15,752 foreigners and 3,640 non-residents voluntarily submitted their illegal ID cards to the authority.