During a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom, Ministry of Interior officials stated that NADRA’s data is now more secure than it was a year ago.
They added that the newly appointed NADRA chairman has implemented additional security features to further strengthen the system.
They disclosed that foreigners had been incorrectly included in the family trees of Pakistani citizens. NADRA has now scrutinized this data, and up to 80 percent of such foreign entries have been removed.
Officials added that these foreigners are now being expelled from Pakistan.
They said it is important to know who is living in Islamabad, and data is being collected through self-enumeration.
Senator Afnanullah raised serious concerns, stating that Pakistani citizens’ data is being sold on the dark web. The committee chairperson asked what investigations had been conducted in the past regarding data leaks. NADRA officials said that 15 officers were dismissed over past data leak incidents.
Senator Afnanullah said dismissing officials is not enough because the damage has already been done. He demanded third-party audits to assess NADRA’s data security.
The committee chairperson directed the NADRA chairman to brief the committee at the next meeting on data protection measures.