KOHAT, Aug 31: The National Database and Registration Authority has registered criminal cases against 21,000 foreigners, mostly Afghan refugees, for submitting bogus attestations of government officials and public representatives to get themselves registered.

Director-general of the NWFP Nadra Brig (Retd) Mohammad Anwar Khan, while talking to reporters here on Sunday, said that they had also taken action against officials and public representatives, who had either attested forms for issuance of the computerized identity cards after getting bribe or those who had extracted political mileage. They would be strictly dealt with under the law, he added.

Mr Anwar disclosed that a deadline would soon be fixed to cancel identity cards issued during the past two decades so that to check the aliens and their movement in the country.

Urging the people to identify Afghans, who, they knew had gotten identity cards through illegal means, adding that Pakistani citizenship was the exclusive right of the people of the country.

There had been 1.8 million refugees residing in the NWFP alone during the peak of the Afghan war, adding that most of them had gotten themselves registered as Pakistani citizens by bribery that had at one time crossed Rs100,000 for the acquisition of a single identity card. Later, he said, their illegal “cost” had gone down to as much as Rs5,000, flooding the tribal areas with fake identity papers.

Highlighting the department’s achievements, he said that so far Nadra had registered 55 per cent population of the province with data of 4.8. million people being saved electronically, adding that 4.2 million people had been issued computerised cards.

He said Nadra had also established separate offices for people belonging to different religious sects in the tribal areas and mobile registration facility had also been provided for the convenience of the tribesmen living in remote areas.

Cautioning public representative and government servant against false attestations, he said that if anyone was found to be involved in such a practice, he could face an imprisonment of one year and a fine amounting to Rs100,000.

Government officials, he said, could also lose their jobs if found to be guilty in this regard, he remarked.