Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday issued orders to suspend an accord between between National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Mastercard with immediate effect, DawnNews reported. The accord was aimed at optimising national identity cards with electronic payments functionality.

According to information available with DawnNews, Nisar said that the accord between Nadra and the technology company in the global payments industry, Mastercard, was made without written approval of the government.

The minister also directed Nadra authorities to submit an explanation that how the agreement was made without seeking prior approval from the competent authorities.

Nadra was also asked that at which extent a foreign company was being given access to Nadra database and under which law, the report added.

Nisar reportedly said that the accord was made without consultations with stakeholders, whereas the aspect of the sensitive nature of security matters was also neglected in making the agreement.

"Usage of technology in financial matters is welcomed but security of national database cannot be compromised, nor an institution can be authorised to go beyond its mandate," said the interior minister.

Last week, Mastercard Card and Nadra had announced an accord on "strategic collaboration" between the two. The agreement was aimed at making Pakistani citizens able to carry out financial transactions and receive government disbursements by utilising the unique 13-digit identification number of their identity card.

The announcement was made during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017, taking place from January 17-20 in Davos, Switzerland.

The agreement was also aimed at enabling citizens to use their National ID to send and receive domestic and international remittances, eliminating the requirement to physically visit a bank branch or currency exchange house to meet their money transfer needs.

According to the terms of the agreement, Mastercard will have to use its next-generation payment processing technologies to process all online payments made by Pakistani citizens for the issuance of National ID cards, passports or any other document provisioned by NadraTechnologies.