The General Headquarter (GHQ) has finalised the findings of inquiry into the National Logistic Cell (NLC) scam, which would be put before the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) special meeting to be called to look into the irregularities and mismanagement of the defence ministry.
Chairman PAC, Chaudhry Nisar Ali apprised the meeting that role played by army chief in NLC scam was commendable. He said that he discussed the multi-billion rupee NLC scam with the high ups of GHQ and they assured that fresh inquiry conducted by the probe committee of GHQ was in line with the early queries of the PAC.
He further said, "We decided to call a two-day session of PAC to see the compliance of ministry of defence on the directives of PAC including NLC", he said. It was also brought to the notice of the committee that ministry of interior has moved some constitutional amendments to Ministry of Law and Justice for consideration which relaxed the rules for Afghan refugees living in Pakistan to have Pakistani nationality.
Chairman, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Ali Arshad Hakeem, disclosed this on Saturday during the meeting of National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee. Chaudhary Nisar Ali chaired the meeting to discuss public complaints regarding issuance of fictitious CNICs by NADRA, in District Rawalpindi, by changing addresses of non-residents of District Rawalpindi.
Chairman NADRA said more than 90,000 computerised national identity cards issued to Afghan refugees illegally had been cancelled and such cases were forwarded to ministry of interior for investigation. The PAC was informed that under the Constitution, there was no provision to award naturalisation to the children of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan on the basis of the place of birth.
Secretary Ministry of Interior, Chaudhary Qamar said that Pakistan is not only a country which did not award nationality on the basis of the place of birth. It was also a practice in other countries of the world. He further said the Afghan settlers in Pakistan fell under refugee category. Ministry of Interior has registered 1.8 million Afghans under POC Scheme. The process of registering rest of 2 million Afghans is under process.
New Member of the Committee from FATA, Noor Alam Khan expressed grave concern saying that NADRA was issuing CNICs to Afghan refugees living on the Pak-Afghan border illegally. He alleged CNICs have been purchased by the Afghan militants who were not only involved in terrorism in Pakistan but also defaming the name of Pakistan abroad.
He recommended to the committee to discourage the practice of issuing CNICs to aliens. On the matter of registration of eunuch, chairman NADRA said currently they developed a database which enabled them to register eunuch as well with NADRA. For achieving this target, he said eunuchs had already been employed in NADRA.
The matter relating to registration of the Baharia Town out-station employees at their new addresses also came under discussion. NADRA was accused that registration process of hundreds of people hailing from different regions of Pakistan would affect the outcome of voting in the next general elections.
Chairman said under NADRA Ordinance 2002, any person could change their temporary address against working place. There was no restriction and same happened in case of Bahria Town. He further said that two separate internal inquiries had been ordered to look into the alleged fake voter's case. Supreme Court sought on March 14 2011, details of fake voters case from NADRA & Attorney General within 10 days. Supreme Court an application submitted for eliminating fake voters which are almost 3 crores, issued notices to all functionaries including election commission.