The Supreme Court will today (Thursday) resume the hearing into a suo motu action taken against issuance of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) at the instance of Bahria Town Chief Executive Malik Riaz to 20,000 employees of Bahria Town by changing their temporary addresses to influence the election process in Rawalpindi’s NA-52constituency.
The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman would appear on notice. On August 19, the court had directed NADRA to close its office located in or around the Bahria Town. The court will examine the reply by NADRA’s counsel, Raza Kazim.
At the last hearing, Kazim had stated that NADRA was an institution and was not concerned with any influential personality, whether he was the Bahria Town chief executive or Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan. The applicant, Muhammad Hashmi, had told the court that 4,100 CNICs had so far been issued.
The court was informed that the temporary addresses of these cards were being replaced with the addresses falling in NA-52 constituency to make the holders voters of the constituency.
It was told that the government had set up a NADRA office in the courtyard of Bahria Town, so that the Bahria Town employees could get their cards easily and influence the elections of NA-52. However, now the NADRA office was shifted outside the Bahria Town office, which was called Swan Town.
NADRA Chief Administrator Tahir Akram had denied the allegation.
Nisar had also expressed concerns over the issue and said it was part of a scheme to defeat him in the next general elections.