In a news report published on Sunday in The News, it was stated that the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) is set to finalise an inquiry identifying those behind a data leak involving the incumbent Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir’s family.
Journalist Azaz Syed wrote that NADRA has issued a detailed statement confirming the data theft of Army Chief’s family, according to the same news outlet.
According to the report, “Nadra finalises probe into illegal access to COAS family’s data, dated April 02, 2023, it is to clarify that the subject probe into illegal access to COAS family’s data is a continuation of Nadra’s stringent measures to protect the citizens’ data from unauthorised access, when he sought help from premier security agency upon assumption of charge as chairman Nadra in June 2021.”
Multiple users of different organisations had accessed General Asim Munir’s data before he was appointed COAS. Other than Nadra, nine institutions, including law enforcement agencies, banks and housing authorities, accessed the COAS’s family data.
About the ongoing inquiry, COAS’s family data was accessed in absence of Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik, who was on ex-Pakistan leave (on official assignment) in November 2022.
Last November, illegally-accessed information was reportedly used in an attempt to block the appointment of the current army chief.
In October 2022, five senior Lieutenant-Generals were contending for the position of Pakistan’s new army chief. During this time, a junior data entry operator at NADRA, Farooq Ahmed, allegedly accessed the data of a female family member of Gen Munir and collected the family’s details and identity card numbers.
This data was later used in the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) to track international travel destinations the family had travelled to.
The prime minister had an investigation launched into the data leak.
As regards to the ongoing probe into the COAS family’s data, the NADRA chairman ordered the inquiry which is in the closing phase. Culprits, from DGs to the data entry operators, have been identified.
