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| Army Chief Asim Munir and his father's data access scandal and the mystery of an alien 'visitor |
It was the morning of October 17, 2022, and the Deputy Director attached to the National Register of Citizens (NADRA) was busy in his office doing routine work. Around ten in the morning, he received a message on his mobile phone from a senior director of Nadrahi.
In this message sent through WhatsApp, the National Identity Card numbers of two Pakistani citizens were mentioned and it was also requested to check and provide the passport details issued to these persons and also provide the photographs of these persons.
In his statement given to the inquiry committee, the deputy director took the stand that because he was busy with his work, he could not respond to the received WhatsApp message in time, so the director reminded him again at 12:17 p.m. A confirmation message was sent as well as a phone call allegedly informing him that the citizen whose ID card number was to be checked had actually 'lost his NICOP' and required confirmation in this regard.
A few officers working in the relevant departments of NADRA have access to passports issued on ID cards, family trees (ie access to data of other members in the family), and other information, and the Deputy Director was one of those few officers.
The deputy director told the inquiry committee that when he checked the national identity card numbers received by the director in the required system, it was found that a passport was issued on one identity card, but no passport was ever issued on the other identity card. It did not continue. All the details received including passport numbers were shared by the Deputy Director with the Director.
In response to a question raised by the Inquiry Committee, the Deputy Director further stated that till then he did not know 'definitely' which Pakistani personality and his father's data he had accessed with the help of his NADRA login and That even after checking the data and reading the names, he had no knowledge about these persons, so he shared the information with his officer.
According to the statement given to the inquiry committee, the deputy director said that he shared this information because 'NADRA as an institution has had a culture that senior officers keep asking for such details regarding office matters and other matters. They are provided on time.'
He further told the inquiry committee that this matter which happened on October 17, 2022, was a matter of routine which he had 'forgotten' as normal.
It should be remembered that this was the time in Pakistan when the tenure of former Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was nearing completion and before the appointment of the new Army Chief on November 29, 2022, the names of various senior army officers were being discussed in various circles.
After weeks of discussions in this regard, Syed Asim Munir was finally appointed as the new army chief in November, they took over the command of Pakistan's bad army after the retirement of General Qamar Javed Bajwa on November 29.
In fact, on October 17, a few weeks before Asim Munir's appointment, the two national identity cards that the deputy director checked through his login were, according to NADRA officials, belonging to the current army chief Asim Munir and his father, and the passport numbers he had shared with his senior director was the passport number of Asim Munir while there was no record of any passport on his father's identity card in the NADRA system at that time.
It should be noted that as a result of the inquiry started in this case, six officers from the junior executive to the director level of NADRA have been dismissed from the job and NADRA has filed a case against those involved in the Secretariat Magistrate's Court. A petition for criminal proceedings has been filed and the first hearing in this matter was scheduled to be held on May 18 in the court of Senior Magistrate Islamabad, Abbas Shah, but due to the transfer of the District Courts building, it has now been given a new date of June 17. is given
Although the Deputy Director had forgotten this after providing the records, in his statement to the inquiry committee, he said that he received his suspension letter on December 19, 2022, about 20 days after the appointment of the Army Chief.
Apart from him, six other officers were also suspended and were accused of accessing the records of the army chief and his family. A few days after the suspension, the Deputy Director received a charge sheet from the institution (ie detailing the charges against him).
According to his statement to the inquiry committee, the deputy director said that on receiving the charge sheet, he was unable to recall which identity cards were being referred to and from which officer he received the request in this regard. was
"I checked my mobile after receiving the charge sheet to find out who requested me to access the data," he told the inquiry committee. WhatsApp records revealed that the applicant was a senior director.
After knowing this, the deputy director contacted the director and according to him, the director also checked his mobile but because he had sent a 'disappear message' on his WhatsApp.
Yatcher' was turned on, so they couldn't find out when they requested to get that data.
According to the statement given to the inquiry committee, it was the following Friday when the deputy director himself went to the director's office and asked him to concentrate and remember who had asked him to access the data.
The deputy director told the inquiry committee that on this occasion the director also asked me to delete the details of the conversation and the passport number from my mobile phone, but I refused and he clearly told me that I should delete these screenshots. I will present it as evidence before the inquiry committee.
The mystery of the unknown visitor
But now the important question here is on whose orders or requests was the director accessing this data?
The Director replied to the inquiry committee which was not correct as per the final report of the inquiry committee.
In response to a question from the inquiry officers, he said that on October 17, 2022, a visitor (visitor) came to his office, who gave him this identity card number and explained a complex matter related to family registration and related to the family tree. And on the request of the same visitor, he requested the Deputy Director to access the data to check the details, but he admitted that he had sent the ID card number to the Deputy Director 'wrong'.
Before asking the deputy director for the passport number, the director reportedly contacted an assistant director to find out the army chief's family details. Although the stunt director confirmed this to the inquiry committee, the director denied it before the inquiry officers, saying that he never had any contact with the stunt director in this regard.
The director told the inquiry committee that he had sought the help of the deputy director only to process the request of the 'visitor'. He also claimed before the inquiry committee that the names of the Deputy Director and his (Director's) wife are actually the same and that the message with the passport number was actually sent to his wife but by mistake, it went to the Deputy Director!
On behalf of the inquiry committee, he was asked if he remembered who was the person who came to his office and asked for these details. In response to which the director said, 'No, I can say all this under oath. I am having fast. I did not know whose National Identity Card number it belonged to.
What was the outcome of the inquiry?
As a result of this inquiry, six officers from junior executive to director level were dismissed after the allegations of access to the Army Chief's data were proved.
In its report, the inquiry committee has described all the incidents that led to access to this data and the involvement of senior directors.
As a result of this, NADRA has now filed a petition for criminal action against those involved in the Secretariat Magistrate's Court and the hearing in this matter will now be held on June 17.
The convener of this inquiry committee on the data leak was Ali Jawad, a senior officer of NADRA, while the members included M&E Directorate chief Lt. Col. (retd.) Tanveer Ahmed and DG Pak ID Sohail Jahangir.
According to the proceedings of the inquiry committee, the charge sheet was handed over to the director, in response to which he denied the allegations and said that he had been working in NADRA since 2011 and had never been involved in any illegal activity during his service.
He further said that whenever a candidate comes to his department with any problem related to the family tree, it is a routine thing to contact Pak ID Directorate for help.
He denied access to the data and pleaded that the charge sheet against him be withdrawn based on his previous service record and lack of evidence in the baseless allegations.
According to the inquiry proceedings, after the reply received in response to the charge sheet, the inquiry committee called him in person and wrote in his report that the director has confirmed that he sent the ID card number to the deputy director with a 'wrong' number and the committee concluded that It has been reached that it can be said 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the Director obtained the citizens' data illegally.
On whose orders was the data being accessed?
This question may not be answered by the inquiries conducted by NADRA as a senior officer under investigation, in this case, claimed while talking to BBC that those officers of NADRA are also involved in this case. Some were dismissed from the institution during the last three months by resigning in an 'honorable' manner.
Perhaps this is the reason why the Public Accounts Committee, in a letter written to the Ministry of Home Affairs on April 7, expressing its concerns over the issue of illegal access to citizens' data, asked the ISI or the Military Intelligence (MI) to investigate the matter. It was recommended to do it.
It may be noted that the MI is already investigating the matter and several senior officers have been questioned in this regard.
Speaking to the BBC, NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik said that his agency has completed an inquiry into the extent of its employees and all involved officials have been dismissed.
He said that not only he was dismissed from the job, but for the first time in the history of NADRA, legal action has been taken against such officers.
Why was the data accessed?
According to a senior NADRA official, after accessing the records of the army chief and his family, the records were used to obtain details from FIA, FBR, Federal Employees Housing Authority, and private banks.
He said that the travel history of this family was found through FIA records.
According to him, an attempt was also made to trace the tax records and land property by using the same information, however, according to this officer, NADRA is the only department that has conducted an inquiry against the persons involved in the illegal activity in this regard. He took the matter to its logical conclusion.
Is citizen data safe?
After reading this article, you must be thinking that if the data of a serving army general (who is now the army chief) and his family is not safe, then is your data or that of a common citizen in NADRA safe?
The answer to this may be the words recorded in the inquiry report that 'NADRA as an institution has had a culture that senior officers keep asking for such details regarding office matters and other matters which are provided to them promptly.'
However, in a notice issued on April 27, 2023, under the signature of NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik, NADRA employees have been instructed to ensure the protection of citizens' data.
The notice states that no employee is allowed to access the family tree of a citizen and if it is necessary to access the family tree of a family, biometrics of a member of the concerned family must be provided.
This notice informs employees about the penalties for illegally accessing someone's data.
Chairman NADRA told BBC that a comprehensive monitoring system has been devised in this regard, in the light of which 171 inquiries have been made in recent days, as a result of which 131 employees have been dismissed from their jobs.
These employees were found to have accessed the private data of people without permission. Similarly, a service called 'Ijazt Aap Ki' has been launched, with the help of which citizens receive notification in case of access to their data in NADRA, and their permission is obtained in this regard.