National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) Chairman Lieutenant General Munir Afsar has told senators that some of the personnel of his organization were engaged in the creation of phony Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).
The Nadra chief revealed it to the Senate Committee on Interior when it was discussing the issue of fake CNICs, the availability of citizens' family data on the black market, and the issuing of several SIMs on a single CNIC, all of which are being utilized in illicit activities.
The meeting was presided over by Senator Mohsin Aziz.
The Nadra chairman told the lawmakers that 84 officials have already been suspended for engaging in any illicit activity and that action has been taken against those personnel.
He informed the committee that "employees escape punishment due to the absence of a law dealing with privacy matters." The Senate panel suggested contemporary solutions to these problems.
On the other hand, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Circle and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) together conducted a raid on a mobile phone franchisee on Kohat Road in Peshawar, in which five people were detained.
According to the authorities, the accused were involved in the issuance of unauthorized SIM cards for Afghan passports.
The franchisee was controlled by an Afghan person, and active SIMs were reportedly being sold to Afghan nationals for Rs3000 apiece.
Along with this, five computers and eight smartphones that included information from scanned passports were also seized.
It was the 12th such raid of the year, according to the PTA.
Pakistan has set a deadline of November 1 for all Afghans residing illegally to return to their country due to an upsurge in terrorist attacks.
Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti stated that eight of the 11 militants involved in recent attacks on two Pakistani military installations were Afghans. Additionally, eight of the 24 suicide bombings that have occurred in Pakistan this year have been carried out by Afghan nationals, he added.