Sub-committee formed to monitor Nadra's working

The Senate Standing Committee on Interior on Thursday established a sub-committee to check and curtail the issues of sluggish working, negligence, nepotism and embezzlement rule of the day in National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Interior informed the media about the issues taken up at the meeting in a press briefing. The meeting was attended by Kamal Shah, Secretary Interior and Saleem Moeen, Chairman Nadra. Whereas, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Dr Abdual Khaliq, Sayed Tahir Hussain Mushahdi, Mrs Kalsoom Parveen and Rehmat Ullah Kakar, were also present in the meeting.
Senator Talha said 'Nadra is a sensitive organisation of the country, therefore, any negligence on its part may pose serious problems to the country. Therefore, this sub-committee headed by him will keep an eye on its working'.
He said issuance of fake identity cards is a sensitive matter as it has the propensity to defame the country. But irrespective of the importance of the issue Nadra has failed to overcome this menace. Presently, Nadra has blocked 94,000 cards on the grounds of having fake data. Six months back, it had blocked 400,000 cards.
He said having found these cases Nadra has neither punished the cardholders, nor has made any investigation against its own employees involved in the issuance of fake identity cards.
It is not possible to produce a replica of an identity card made by Nadra, as it uses two kinds of sheets, which are not available in Pakistan. Secondly, WSQ machines are used to read the fingerprints to avoid duplication of the cards.
Nadra issues every card after receiving clearance from its Data Warehouse (DWH) but the presence of fake and duplicate cards implies that the staff is involved in fake cards business.
Talha said having such barriers no one other than the department's own workers can do this job. He said that despite the issuance of identity cards Nadra is working on various other projects as well. It has developed a chip to have a tracking network to avoid car thefts.
The work has been completed but the process of implementation is still lingering on. He said that Nadra is charging Rs 5 for the registration of a new mobile SIM earning lots of money annually. On the other hand million of mobile connections have no identification.