ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The ministries of interior, labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis; foreign affairs; information and broadcasting and provincial governments on Wednesday agreed to jointly counter the menace of human trafficking.

The agreement reached at a conference on “Data collection and human trafficking” held here at the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) headquarter.

The conference, aimed at developing linkages between the concerned ministries and departments to fight human trafficking, was organised by the migration management cell of the interior ministry.

Besides, representatives of ministries and provincial governments, various diplomats in Pakistan and other stakeholders attended the conference.

Nadra Chairman Brig (retd) Saleem Moeen in his opening remarks said that Nadra had maintained a database of 90 hundred million people and issued over 55 million identity cards.

He said that Nadra had eliminated national identity card fraud cases, adding that the authority daily stopped 400 to 600 applications for obtaining dual cards.

Brig Moeen assured all full support of the authority for compiling a database on human trafficking and making it available for the stakeholders.

Representative of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said that the agency was trying to counter the menace since long and due to its concerted efforts the country’s name had been removed from the global watch list.

He said joint efforts could help remove the evil which had on one hand looted many people and claimed lives of many innocent on the other. The database would help devise a joint strategy to curb the menace.

Representatives of other ministries and provincial governments also gave their suggestions regarding data collection on human trafficking.

Deputy Secretary Interior Ministry Amna Imran in her remarks said that it was the first ever such exercise in this regard that would provide facts about the issue.

She said the database would serve as a resource centre on the issue of human trafficking and illegal immigration as well as would facilitate to generate awareness among the masses on the negative implications of travel abroad through illegal means.

She said the conference had defined the duties of all concerned ministries, provincial governments and its departments including home, labour, prosecution, police, social welfare and transport as well as the agencies of the ministry of interior including the FIA, Nadra, passport and immigration, and the armed forces for collection of data on human trafficking.—APP