July 11, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 10: The National Database Registration Authority is making strenuous efforts to gather and document vital information about every citizen, including those living abroad and holding dual nationality, Nadra Chairman Saleem Moeen told Dawn on Tuesday.

“On completion of the exercise, we will have all the information required to plan for the future of the country, like how many schools we need over the next five years in an area or what to teach the youngsters so that they can contribute to the economy,’ said the Nadra chairman.

“We will also be able to help the authorities to apprehend anyone involved in fraud or criminal activity, said Brig Moeen retired.

He said that so far Nadra had prepared an exhaustive database for 21.7 million people. There were 70 million people between the ages of 18 and 110 years, whose details were being collected, he said.

Replying to a question, he said that of the 15.2 million people registered with Nadra, about 700,000 were graduates. The literacy rate, he pointed out, was about 37 per cent.

He said people had got bogus and duplicate cards in huge numbers, which needed to be eliminated to have an authentic database.

He said an FIRs had been registered against 400 government employees who helped people in getting fake ID cards. Similarly, an FIR has been lodged against 210 people who wrongly attested the forms of thousands of people, including those from Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

“We have been able to retrieve thousands of fake ID cards from Afghan refugees and Bangladeshis,” he claimed.

There are many people whose names, father’s names and dates of birth have been found to be identical and it was very difficult to have every thing verified in a short time, he said.

“Then there are 1.19 million people who live alone and have no relatives registered anywhere,” he said.

Moeen said 72 million people were on the voters’ list and details about them were being collected for the database.

Responding to a question, he said that since last October 12 million people had been issued computerized ID cards. He agreed that the process was slow and said the authority was very careful.

Asked why the people of Northern Areas were not being issued ID cards, he said the Azad Kashmir claimed the areas. “The issue is in the Supreme Court of Azad Kashmir and nothing could be done at this stage unless any decision is given by the court,” he said.

The major objectives of Nadra, Moeen said, were, the elimination of bogus and duplicate cards, ensuring authenticity of passports, controlling illegal immigration, getting the vehicles and weapons registered and providing assistance to the government for law enforcement and administrative control.

He said that documentation of population, production and distribution of identity cards, data entry and printing of electoral tolls for the national and provincial assemblies, child registration and registration of overseas Pakistanis were also important tasks of his organization.

“We are also providing more than 4,000 jobs to information technology personnel,” he added.