1,800 CNICs stolen from NADRA office in Karachi

KARACHI (92 News) – The unidentified men [thieves] on Wednesday stole the 1,800 800 computerised national identity cards (CNICs) from National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) Landhi office. According to the reports, the unidentified persons sneaked to the Nadra office and took with them 1,800 CNICs and entry registers much to the oblivion of the security guard on duty outside on Wednesday. Meanwhile, all stolen CNICs have been annulled and an inquiry committee was formed to investigate the burglary. The Nadra officials, however, have decided that the cancelled cards will be reprinted and issued to their holders a few days before the by-elections on January 27.

Speaking to the journalists outside the Nadra’s office, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) candidate in the upcoming elections, Hashim Raza dubbed the theft an attempt to make the by-election unsuccessful. He requested the election commission to allow people to cast votes through CNIC card tokens. The police started investigation about the burglary from various angles. One theory is that a candidate of the upcoming by-elections might have facilitated the burglary in order to weaken an opposing candidate’s election campaign. Evidence was gathered, investigation initiated and a case was registered later on. It was further reported that the CCTV cameras installed in the office were out of order hence no recorded footage of the incident was available.

Upon inspection, it was discovered that 1,800 CNICs were missing from the cabinets along with record registers. During the previous year, the Nadra officials blatantly rejected allegations of data leakage. The NADRA officials clarified that data of even a single citizen had not been shared from any platform. They dismissed all the data leakage accusations and data leaks has no reality. They said that the email has nothing to do with the issue. “We have given explanation to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over allegations of data leakage”, It further asserted.

Earlier, the ECP had accused NADRA of violating its agreement with Election commission regarding the confidentiality of data. The database and registration authority was not permitted to share data with anyone as per the agreement, ECP had asserted.