Nadra dismisses data leak allegation

20 Jun, 2018

National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) on Tuesday dismissed the allegation of voters' data leakage to any political party and termed it baseless. During a press conference addressed by all four director-generals of NADRA, the officials said that NADRA had never shared the data of any citizen at any platform. They said that no data had ever been breached by the authority.
Director General NADRA Zulfikar Ali said, "Our press conference is nothing to do with the claims of any political party and we are neither denying nor verifying any political statement about the data breach." He claimed that the individual who leveled accusations against NADRA was expelled on corruption charges. "Former NADRA official Syed Muzaffar who was removed from his post over corruption charges had hurled allegations whereas one-year-old video was aired on a news channel," he said.
He said that an explanation was given to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over allegations of data leakage and the commission had also rejected the reports. He said the NADRA was audited every year by Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP). The DG further said that data of even a single citizen had not been shared from any platform. "The NADRA is not here to reject or verify statements [of political leaders] pertaining to leakage of data. The email [shared by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] has nothing to do with the issue."
He further said the apex court had extolled NADRA's steps in dual nationality case and same was done again by the country's top court over NADRA's actions in overseas voting issue. On Monday last, the ECP wrote to NADRA Chairman Usman Yousaf Mobin over alleged voters' data leakage to outsiders, fearing a potential threat to the computerized electoral rolls system (CERS). On June 17, the PTI alleged that NADRA's Chairman Usman Mobin had provided valuable data to the PML-N to help the party win elections.
The party stated that Mobin was appointed NADRA's chairman by the PML-N and fair and free elections could not be held in his presence. The PTI had written letter to the ECP over alleged data leakage while a petition against the NADRA chairman would be submitted to seek his removal.

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