BAJAUR, Oct 3: The new voters’ lists of Bajaur Agency carry the names of hundreds of Afghan refugees who are settled in the agency for the last couple of years, it has been learnt.

Hundreds of Afghans living in different parts of the agency had been registered as voters after they obtained the national identity cards on the recommendation and verification of tribal elders and Maliks, sources said.

Officials told Dawn that the political administration had ordered a probe against the Maliks and chieftains involved in the verification and subsequent issuance of Pakistan national identity cards to hundreds of refugees.

The sources said around 3,000 Afghan refugees had got themselves registered as voters in NA-43, Bajaur-I, constituency, and some 1,800 had been registered in the NA-44, Bajaur-II, constituency.

They said the tribal elders and Maliks, in connivance with the clerical staff of the local administration, were involved in the inclusion of Afghan refugees in the fresh voters’ lists as they verified the application forms of these refugees for the issuance of national identity cards.

The refugees, whose names are included in the voter lists, are living in the respective areas of the Maliks, the sources said, adding that they had also verified the forms of these Afghans to make them obtain the computerized identity cards.

The sources further said about 2,000 computerized identity cards had, so far, been illegally issued to the refugees on the recommendation and verification of the Maliks.

They said the political administration had initiated probe into the scandal on the written complaint of a candidate for the National Assembly.

The Nadra staff has also been directed by the administration to produce the record of the Afghan refugees who have obtained the identity cards in the agency and been included in the voters’ lists.

Besides, the Maliks had been instrumental in facilitating the Afghans, living in the agency for the last more than 20 years, getting government jobs. They had been employed in the levies and militia forces and some had also got clerical jobs in offices of the administration, the sources further said.