PAC asks NADRA for more information, and the panel's head claims dual-national officials can be ignored.
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| PAKISTAN ID CARD AND PASSPORT. Source : Online |
Islamabad: Tariq Malik, the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), revealed before the parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday that 500 personnel with "sensitive" information had given up their citizenship and relocated abroad after they retired from service.
The PAC requested the list of the officers who had relinquished their citizenship during its meeting, which was presided over by MNA Noor Alam Khan.
Officers holding dual citizenship may be demoted, according to the PAC chief.
Noor enquired further of Malik regarding the standards for selecting the director general of NADRA Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
A sensitive position, he continued, because K-P shared a border with Afghanistan.
The NADRA K-P DG was thereafter relieved of his duties by the PAC chief.
The NADRA chairman informed the panel that 2,600 employees' cases were being personally investigated, and that 43 people had been fired from the organisation for wrongdoing.
Noor gave the PAC the names of NADRA employees who had been fired and then were later restored.
The committee also requested a list of the 380 Afghans who were deported from Dubai and whose recovered Pakistani passports.
The chairman of the committee questioned how long Pakistan would house the Afghan migrants. They have been residing in the nation for years and shout anti-Pakistani chants, he continued.
A committee member named Shahida Akhtar Ali said that Pakistan too had Afghans from the third generation. She continued by saying that the panel needed to be updated on the status of the probe in this regard as they were seated in front of the press club in Islamabad.
The Afghan refugees, according to another member named Barjees Tahir, should be returned to Afghanistan.
The chairman of the committee remarked that mistakes had been made in the past and questioned why the Afghan refugees were not kept in their camps.
He continued by saying that anyone who yelled anti-Pakistani slogans ought to be ejected from the nation right now.
The country's actions for the Afghan refugees had not been adequate, the interior secretary acknowledged.
The official informed the panel that although Afghan refugees had dispersed across the nation, the committee's directives will be carried out in this regard.
Noor stated that after 40 years of serving the Afghan refugees, they should either return to their home nation or stay restricted to their camps.
Ahmad Hassan Dehar, a committee member, made the observation that Pakistani national identity cards had been given to the Afghan refugees and that this subject needed to be looked into.
Those Afghans who had rioted during the cricket match in Sharjah, according to senator and committee member Saleem Mandviwalla, held Pakistani passports. What steps had been taken against them, he enquired.
The chairman demanded that the committee be given information about the Afghans who had rioted during the cricket match.
Sheikh Rohail Asghar, a panellist, opined that the Afghan refugees ought to be returned.
Noor instructed the interior, states, and frontier regions ministries to confine all Afghan refugees to their camps and to forbid them from operating any businesses.
The majority of the crimes that occurred in Karachi, he said, were committed by Afghans.
The interior ministry should provide more information about the Afghans who were born in Pakistan, the IGP in Islamabad noted at the time.
The ministry has been given a month to take action toward this goal, according to the head of the PAC.
The interior secretary claimed that due to international regulations, the Afghan refugees could not be taken back.
He continued, "These concerns will be brought up with the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees].
The PORs were given to the Afghan refugees, according to the NADRA chairman, and their biometric data was verified when they entered and exited Balochistan's border regions.
He stated that the issue of Afghan refugees having Pakistani identification cards was being looked into.
The chairman said that many Afghan refugees had identity cards from Pakistan.
The NADRA chairman responded that because this was a delicate situation, the PAC chairman should let his department know any specifics.
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