March 23, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, March 22: The government has decided to allow members of the divided families living along the border to cross into Afghanistan provided they have biometric cards and also a matching sticker on their vehicles, Dawn has learnt reliably.

The biometric border control system cards would be issued to people living along the Balochistan border and their family members living in Afghanistan.

Director-General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Pervez said that the biometric cards and stickers would be issued by NADRA, adding that the cards would be issued after proper official verification. They would not need passport to cross into Afghanistan, he said.

Officials said that despite repeated efforts, authorities concerned had been unable to make the system effective and overcome problems like power failures and software deficiencies.

Sources said that so far, 8,299 biometric cards have been issued against 13,762 applications.

The government had set March 25 as the deadline for applying for the biometric cards and vehicle stickers.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting in Quetta that was attended by FIA, NADRA and police representatives.

In the light of issues discussed in the meeting, the federal government had directed the FIA and NADRA to remove the problems and encourage people to obtain the cards. The meeting was informed that technical difficulties would be removed, making the system effective immediately.

The meeting had observed that the biometric system’s success would help the government maintain the law and order situation besides improving the overall security situation in the country.

The meeting had also decided to launch a public awareness campaign, enabling a maximum number of people to benefit from the scheme.

The Frontier Constabulary had been asked to devise a system to strictly check vehicles without biometric stickers. Sources said that vehicles without the stickers would either be returned back or parked aside without hindering the traffic flow between the two countries.

The source said the authorities concerned had also been directed to take measures at the Jamshed Post to avoid any untoward incident after the system started functioning following the March 25 deadline.