Interim federal cabinet approves appointment of Lt Gen Munir Afsar as NADRA chairman

The caretaker federal cabinet on Monday approved appointment of Lieutenant General Munir Afsar as new chairman of the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA).

In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said the approval came after detailed consideration of a summary from the Ministry of Interior containing names of top three shortlisted candidates for the post.

Afsar’s appointment would come into effect immediately, according to a notification issued later.

Who is Lieutenant General Munir Afsar?

Lieutenant General Munir Afsar is a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz (military) and carries vast experience in technical development and systems in information technology in the United Nations mission, Aaj News reported.

Moreover, he has an MPhil in public policy and national security management. He compiled a research paper on public policy response in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department during the 2010 floods.

Lt-Gen Afsar did his MS in GIS and Remote Sensing. He was also awarded the civil award for his paper on rapid geospatial data generation through photometry.

He did his MS in National Resource Strategy (C&IT Industry and Supply Chain Management) from the National Defense University in Washington DC where he was named a “distinguished graduate”. Currently, he is a candidate for PhD in remote sensing at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad and his research paper is on the detection of plant diseases through remote sensing and artificial intelligence.

Afsar has several research publications to his credit related to various aspects of IT and GIS. He has also served in the UN missions as a military GIS officer.

He also served the government in the development of GIS application for flood recovery during the 2010 floods. He also served as the director general of IT at the Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence, (C4I) Directorate.

After being promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, Afsar served as inspector general of communication and IT as well as commander of Pakistan Army Cyber Command.

The cabinet also gave assent to the decisions taken in the meetings of the Economic Coordination Committee on September 6.

PM stresses provision of skills to manpower

In the cabinet meeting on Monday, the interim prime minister stressed the need to work on war footing for provision of skills to the country’s manpower according to the contemporary requirements, state-run APP reported.

He said the professional education and vocational training programmes should be prepared at par the needs of the international market.

Chairing the meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister said steps should be taken to increase employment opportunities of skilled people abroad.

On recommendation of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, the cabinet also approved the service level amended agreement between the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission and Saudi agency Takamol.

The interim prime minister directed that all existing centres of technical education and vocational training should be activated.

The cabinet also approved the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Area Studies Centre, University of Peshawar, and Central Asia Research Center of Corvinus University of Hungary.

The cabinet also extended approval to the name of Summit Bank Limited as Bank Mukarramah Limited on the recommendation of the Ministry of Finance.

On recommendation of the interior ministry, the Cabinet approved the agreement between the governments of Pakistan and Ecuador, under which diplomatic, officials and special passport holders of both countries would be mutually exempted from visa.

The cabinet also gave assent to decisions taken in the meetings of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on September 6 and September 19, 2023.