The blocking of the computerised national identity card (CNIC) of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) underscores the need to identify all such aliens. The former provincial minister and senator from Balochistan is stated to have acquired his CNIC ‘fraudulently’. Officials declared him an Afghan and that the decision on his CNIC was taken after years of scrutiny. The announcement is being criticised by JUI-F circles and other politicians, who are calling it an effort to harm JUI-F’s planned Azadi March.
In his defence, the firebrand cleric from border district of Chaman says his father has been an employee of the education department in 1974. This is not a valid defence. It is a reality that before the launch of Nadra the manual identity card regime had many flaws and documentation was in a state of disarray. Many militants were caught having manual cards and later even CNICs. Among them was the Taliban chief, Mulla Akhtar Mansoor, whose killing in a drone strike triggered the launch of scrutiny of CNICs in 2016. Since then, many CNICs have been declared bogus and consequently cancelled. Most of them were from Balochistan, and with Pashtun ethnicity.
The case of Hamdullah has been under investigation for quite a while . The fact is that before the fencing of Pakistan-Afghanistan border, there was a soft border between the two countries. Also, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, waves of Afghan immigrants settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan besides Karachi and Punjab. Many of them acquired identity cards illegally and settled here. Likewise, Karachi, being a port city, is home to tens of thousands illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar and India, whose CNICs have now been cancelled. They, however, continue living in the city. Criticising NADRA for its war on aliens is uncalled for. The institution is well known for its data maintenance, accuracy, updates and protection. Its reputation has attracted many countries to get its help for their database management. The state institution must be protected from unnecessary politicisation and criticism.
