12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Feb 11: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has achieved 62 per cent target in the province by issuing Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, the outgoing director-general of Nadra in the NWFP, Brig Anwar Khan (retired), said that the registration authority in the NWFP has surpassed all the other provinces in achieving the target.

They had to prepare 8.8 million CNICs of which 64 per cent were registered with Nadra in the shape of forms, whereas 62 per cent data has been computerized and the CNICs had been issued to the applicants, he added.

He said that they had made utmost efforts to ensure that no foreigner, specially the Afghans, could get any CNIC. Therefore, presently 23,351 suspected forms had been with held and 1,723 FIRs had been lodged against the attestors including 650 government employees and public representatives, he added.

Mr Khan said that the penalty for attesting forms of foreigners entailed one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000, while the government employees would lose jobs if found involved in attesting bogus forms.

However, he said, the government employees did a tremendous job as 97 per cent of them attested the correct forms and only three per cent either deliberately or inadvertently attested the suspected forms.

He urged the government employees, who attested the suspected forms, to come forward and point it out so that they could be cancelled before they go to the wrong hands. "We will not take any action against such government employees and the public representatives," he added.

Referring to organizational set up of Nadra in the NWFP, Mr Khan said that the registration authority began its work from scratches four years ago. "We had no chair and office to sit, while today, Nadra has 91 offices in the province that included 24 district registration offices, 33 swift centres, 12 upcoming swift centres, seven Fata registration offices, and seven SDPOs."

Similarly, five mobile teams one each in Hazara, Swat, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar were also working to facilitate people in getting the CNICs, he said, adding that the mobile teams also covered their respective tribal belt.

He said that apart from its primary task, Nadra also contributed a lot in introducing e-government in the province providing free of cost service to various institutions like police, prison and Zakat.

Nadra had prepared a data of the Mustehkeen-i-Zakat including widows over 40-year of age, unemployed men above 50-year of age and disabled people. He said that Nadra at its Haj verification counter, detected 43 non-Pakistanis with the CNICs. It had five verification centres at passports offices in the province, he added. -APP