Fresh arrest made of NADRA officials in CNIC scandal
Fresh arrest made of NADRA officials in CNIC scandal
Saadullah Akhtar
Balochistan

QUETTA: The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) on Thursday has arrested Assistant Director NADRA and a Vigilance Officer for issuing Pakistani National Identity Card NIC to an Afghan citizen.

QUETTA: The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) on Thursday has arrested Assistant Director NADRA and a Vigilance Officer for issuing Pakistani National Identity Card NIC to an Afghan citizen.

The Afghan citizen and one agent are among the arrested persons.

Assistant Director National Data Base and Registration Authority (NADRA)’s Assistant Director Mnazoor Bugti and a Vigilance Officer Nisar Hazara were arrested by FIA over issuing Pakistani Identity Card to an Afghan citizen Habibullah by taking half million rupees as bribe.

“The Afghan citizen Habibullah came to Pakistan some months before and filed his fake documents to get National Identity Card after giving bribe to NADRA officials,” FIA officials told.

Habibullah and an agent Izzatullah were nabbed red-handed from Alamdar Road when the agent reached there to get bribe for his NIC.

Pakistan has a poor record of issuing national Identity Cards to other citizens, particularly Afghans.

Federal Government took notice and blocked hundreds of thousands of NIC after Afghan Taliban Chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a US Drone Strike near Naushki where his Pakistani CNIC and passport were found from the site.

“The arrested Assistant Director, Vigilance Officer and two others were shifted to official custody for further interrogation,” FIA officials added.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and FIA has intensified operation against NADRA for releasing fake CNICs to Afghans and arrested several NADRA officials in the recent past.

A number of former Balochistan Government officials were also arrested for verifying the forged documents of Afghans seeking Pakistani travel documents, including the CNICs.

Political observers had suggested to the Interior Ministry to chase, arrest and deport all the illegal immigrants, mainly from Afghanistan and India, instead of blocking the forged CNICs they obtained by bribing the Government officials in a big way.