Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday told National Assembly that some 90,000 illegal passports and Identity cars acquired by Afghan nationals were cancelled and investigations had been started against the delinquent. Responding to a point of order, the minister revealed that investigations had been started against as much as 215 officials of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
He, however, lauded the performance of Nadra during the last three years and said that the Authority was not only providing service to the people in the country but also to many friendly countries. When attention of the Interior Minister was drawn to law and order related issues in the southern Punjab that included kidnapping for ransom, tribal disputes and others, he assured the house to address every single issue pointed out by the lawmakers.
Rehman Malik told the house that he had already discussed these issues with the Punjab Chief Minister, who is in China, and soon a high-level meeting would be held to chalk out a strategy for tackling these. Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah assured the National Assembly that the service structure of engineers as was done in case of doctors would be reviewed.
"I will take up the matter with the Prime Minister and recommend reviewing the service structure of engineers for providing them better facilities, removing their grievances," he said. Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan of PML-N had invited the attention of the government over the issues of service structure and delay in elections of Pakistan Engineering Council. Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali assured the house that elections for the new governing body of the PEC would be held at the earliest. The process would be completed for sure before September 30, he added.