ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar on Thursday informed the lower house of the Parliament that stringent data verification guards were in place and no non-Pakistani had been issued any CNIC or passport.

He was responding to the queries of Member National Assembly (MNA), Sehar Karman and MNA, Noor Alam Khan raising concerns over alleged illegal issuance of Pakistani CNICs and passports to Afghan nationals.

Attaullah Tarar informed the House that there had been new scanners and latest machines installed at Passport offices across the country whereas the entire system was streamlined to ensure better and foolproof facilities.

“Three-tier scrutiny of Afghan nationals’ documents for passport that are mandatory for attestation from a gazetted officer, re-verification of the attestation issuing authority and before final issuance of the passport of CNIC, the data of the applicant is confirmed through the Family Registration Certificate (FRC) data of NADRA,” he said.

He said that not only passports but also NADRA data computability were being appropriately checked. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is taking up proper investigations into the matters pertaining to issuance of CNICs to non-Pakistanis where if the movers have any information against private rackets it should be shared to the relevant forum for proper action, the Minister said.

“Verification steps have been increased and every document is meticulously verified. The applicant has to provide proper proofs of residence. NADRA has one of the most technologically verified databases. Many departments are using NADRA data for face-verification and other data confirmations,” Tarar said.

The Speaker National Assembly pointed out that some NADRA officials were previously arrested for lapses and hoped that no such issue would recur.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq directed MNA Noor Alam to provide him the lists of the suspected individuals that would be shared with the Interior Ministry.