ISLAMABAD, Dec 27 (APP): A major breakthrough was achieved in the case of illegal issuance of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) as the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Anti-Corruption Circle Islamabad on Wednesday arrested a four-member gang, allegedly involved in issuing fake CNICs to non-nationals.
According to an FIA spokesperson, the action was taken under the direction of Deputy Director Anti-Corruption Circle Islamabad Afzal Khan Niazi.
The arrested accused Muhammad Tahir, Adnan Ammar, Muhammad Amir Khan and Muhammad Tayyab were posted as deputy assistant directors and senior executives at NADRA Mega Center, Blue Area, Islamabad.
“The accused were arrested from Islamabad and the raid for that was carried out under the leadership of Inspector Zahid Bhatti,” the spokesperson said.
The accused issued identity cards to non-nationals/Afghans during the year 2019 and 2020. “For this purpose, fake fathers were arranged by the agents amongst drug addicts/labourers/daily wage workers by the agent mafia through cheating as they were lured in by paying money in the guise of Ehsaas/BISP/NGO aid payments and hence, their biometrics were obtained by above-mentioned NADRA officers/officials for the purpose of entering the names of Afghans/non-nationals in their (fake fathers) family tree,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“Financial gratification was received directly or indirectly by the NADRA (National Database & Registration Authority) staff for the said illegal and unlawful acts.
“As biometrics of these non-nationals/Afghans for registration and processing of CNICs were not taken and instead were swapped by biometrics of juvenile and drug addicts, these acts of NADRA officials threatened the national security as these non-nationals/Afghan cannot be traced through biometric analysis.
“Hence the above referred NADRA officials committed offences of cheating, fraud and forgery by misuse of authority and their official position,” the spokesperson added.
He said the role of other NADRA officers/officials, private agents and facilitators would be determined during the course of investigation.
