The Election Commission (EC) has sent a letter seeking cancellation of the National Identity Card (NID) service to the security department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The letter signed by EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed has been sent to the concerned departments and offices on Wednesday.
Letters regarding the repeal of the National Identity Registration Act, 2023 to vest the National Identity Registration process under the Election Commission have been sent to the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the Principal Adviser, the Senior Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Secretary to the Law and Justice Department.
Before this, a decision was taken to discuss this matter in the commission meeting on January 12. After the meeting that day, Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd.) Abul Fazal. Sanaullah told reporters, 'Let NID be under EC, it has been a policy decision. We are not going into any analysis. In our view, the removal of NID is inconsistent with the constitutional powers vested in the EC. Contradictory to this, the constitution states that the commission is responsible for preparing, directing and controlling the voter list.
Abul Fazal also said, 'You know, the Election Commission itself has developed it since 2007. Voter list and NID are generated from this database. We don't think it is logical to go to another place just to print NID. Secondly, we think, we have created manpower through training. Capacity has been built up to the field level. So, it will be duplicated if NID is carried. So it will not be consistent to carry. Election Commission prepares voter list based on primary data. We will not transfer the data to anyone. Since there is a data center centrally, we don't think there is a need for duplication.'
Abul Fazal said, 'A law was made in 2023 to repeal the National Identity Registration Act, 2010. However, it did not work. During the last commission a resolution was passed to repeal this Act. A DO letter was issued on September 24 last year. We have decided to communicate with the government in the form of a decision after discussion.'