ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Affairs Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave final approval for Computerised National Identity Card (CNICs) re-verification drive to be launched on July 1, across Pakistan.
The minister was chairing a meeting here on Thursday, also attended by the secretary interior, NC NACTA, NADRA chairman and other senior officials. The minister was informed that NADRA has established the needed helpline capable of handling 10,000 calls per day and a SMS gateway of 150,000 sms per day to facilitate general public who would report suspected CNICs issued to aliens.
Nisar was informed that training for needed human resources was also complete to ensure successful completion of national CNIC re-verification drive. It is worth noting that Nisar has given six months deadline for re-verification of the CNICs to NADRA, declaring “it an important milestone pertaining to national security.”
The minister directed that national CNIC re-verification scheme would start from July 1. The multi-pronged strategy comprises of data analysis schemes for verification including across the board fraud detection and mathematical modeling, utilisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Authorioty’s (PTA) data for identification of aliens, Amnesty scheme, establishment of helpline and family tree intrusion detection through sms.
He said that side by side with this multi-pronged exercise, the input by Joint Verification Committees will continue to identify aliens who have illegally acquired CNICs.
The minister said that NADRA must give timeline for finalization of all cases involving blockage of CNICs so that people don’t spend lifetime clearing their names. He directed that NADRA should ensure utilisation of all its resources to achieve the desired objective of removing aliens from NADRA’s data base within the given timeline.
He also approved media strategy of NADRA for awareness of the general masses. He said that CNIC re-verification awareness campaign should also be launched in local ethnic languages. He said that it would help NADRA to create awareness over the importance of this national security campaign among various communities with different languages and backgrounds.
