KARACHI, July 30: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said on Monday that the new smart card system would help the provincial government in saving up to Rs6 billion and eliminating ghost employees found by the National Database Registration Authority through computerised national identity card (CNIC) verification.

Speaking to the media after inaugurating the smart card system here, he said: “With the introduction of the smart cards, 26,000 new vacancies will be generated, which will be filled within three months after their announcement”.

Pensioners would be issued smart cards and they would be able to draw their pension from any biometric enabled ATM of any bank, he added.

Sharing details of the new system, he said a total of 410,000 employees were registered with the Sindh government and 328,000 of them had CNICs, while 73,800 had old NICs.

After verification from Nadra, the record of 21,438 CNICs and 20,000 manual NICs could not be found and were now confirmed as bogus, he said, adding that similarly, 16,665 NICs contained fake ages of their holders.

He said that around 1,264 persons had been detected doing dual jobs in government departments and Nadra had so far blocked 638 NICs.

He said that the new system would detect ghost employees and those doing multiple jobs after CNIC verification.

He criticised the policies of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Sindh.

He said that the workers of the Pakistan People’s Party felt that their leadership was being victimised and they were ready to give any sacrifice for it.—PPI