ISLAMABAD: In an unexpected turn of events, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has informed the Senate Committee on Interior and Narcotics that Saudi authorities have identified 1,296 Afghan nationals with fake Pakistani passports.
In the meeting at Parliament House, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman, ordered the NADRA officials to submit a complete report about the forgeries and tampering with the national database.
Director General Passport, Mustafa Jamal Qazi, while answering the question by Senator Irfan Siddiqui, said that a total of 1,296 individuals hold bogus Pakistani passports in last 5 years.
He further stated that at least 35 assistant directors were involved in issuing the bogus passports, and they have been punished.
“Apart from this, 45 more cases have come,” he said. While the other, with bogus Pakistani passports, has been deported to Afghanistan.
“There are 4,500 passports for which we do not have data, while 3,000 passports were made by photo-swapping, 6,000 were fakes made by intruding into Nadra data. These 12,000 bogus passport holders are not in Pakistan.” Qazi told the committee.
Chief Operating Officer NADRA said that according to Nadra rules, every CNIC must be renewed every ten years.
The committee also discusses the involvement of non-related persons in the NADRA family trees. The NADRA official told that we are advancing our policy to physically verify the individuals of the applicant’s blood relatives, along with biometric capture of the family member.
Meanwhile, the committee addressed CDA’s projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). A CDA spokesperson indicated that 22 projects were now ongoing, with a revised budget of Rs9,780 million under the PSDP 2024-25.
The Ministry of Interior has thus far given Rs5,232 million. He stated that Rs20,769 million were required for 17 existing projects and Rs63,953 million for 99 new projects.
