ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Nadra is relaunching its project of issuing Pakistani Origin Cards, and has asked all Pakistani missions abroad to send data from their respective countries.

“It was launched half-heartedly and now a serious attempt is being made to issue cards to Pakistani expatriates,” Nadra chairman Brig Saleem Ahmed Moin said.

The Authority has already drafted rules for issuing Pakistani origin cards, which have been referred to the Ministry of Law and Justice for approval, Mr Moin said.

The project will be relaunched shortly after vetting and approval of the rules by the law ministry, he added.

At present, Nadra is in the process of issuing new computerized identity cards to over 60 million people above the age of 18. He said this process would be completed in the next 18 months.

“At present 100,000 new identity cards are being printed every day,” he added.

On complaints about the slow issuance of the cards, he said, Nadra was establishing fast centres in all major cities for collection of data.

He pointed out that one such centre had already been set up in Rawalpindi on experimental basis, where anybody could walk in and get his particulars registered.

These centres were equipped with all facilities to take the pictures of the applicants and to electronically record his thumb impression and other required data, he added.

He said the Authority had taken adequate measures to check issuance of bogus or duplicate identity cards. The cards which, he said, had been designed and manufactured locally were approved by an international agency which had certified it as foolproof.

He said they had adopted a method of double-entry system, which had eliminated the chances of duplication. From a sample of 100,000 cards, only 500 had similar particulars, including name, date of birth and father’s name. Out of these, less than 10 were such wherein the applicants had tried to obtain two cards with different addresses, he said.

Cases against these had already been referred to the relevant authorities, he added.

He said they had already prepared six to 6.5 million cards out of which 150,000 were separated as suspected ones. These cards would be verified before issuance, he added.

The chairman said the database developed at Nadra could be utilized for planning purposes in the field of education, health, communication etc. He said they were also introducing a privacy law so that data could not be misused.

On the sluggish pace of issuance of cards, he said, they were facing difficulties in delivering the cards, as the staff deputed for this purpose could not find the applicant and had to visit his residence several times.

On a question about the electoral list, he said, printing of the list would be completed by December 23 and handed over to the Election Commission.