Business of organized groups preparing fake cards, domicile birth certificates, and passports for Afghan refugees reached an all-time high in Peshawar, Charsadda, Swat, and Nowshera as some Afghan national files pettitions in High Court for giving them a Pakistan Origin Card after marriage with Pakistanis girls.
An assistant director and other staff were allegedly found directly involved in making fake cards for Afghan citizens. An organized group preparing fake documents for Afghan refugees has been revealed in Peshawar and other districts of the province, including employees of government institutions and public representatives.
According to the documents, law enforcement agencies have prepared lists of those who were facilitating Afghan citizens in making fake national identity cards, domicile, birth certificates, and passports. The involvement of government employees has been identified. Data entry operators, Secretaries Union Council in Charsadda, Swat, and other districts.
The officials of the National Directorate of Security and DC Office have also been identified who are involved in preparing fake documents in collaboration with organized groups or individually. In this regard, strict legal action has been ordered against the agents and their facilitators active in different areas of Charsadda and Swat.
According to sources in the Afghan Commissionerate Peshawar, the federal and provincial governments have taken notice of the serious issue of making fake and illegal documents for Afghan citizens and have decided to take action against the concerned government officials.
A report has revealed that some individuals and their facilitators in different districts were preparing fake documents, service cards, and other official papers with the alleged help of officials of government departments. A list has also been sent with the letter, in which the details of the involved individuals and facilitators are recorded.
According to the document, fake Afghan citizen cards and other identity documents are being produced through printing presses and shops established in different areas, some of whom were allegedly working for themselves, while others were working in the form of a network.
A large network of illegally produced Pakistani government documents for Afghan residents has been exposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the documents, this group is active in districts like Peshawar, Mardan, and Nowshera, which not only produce fake documents but also facilitate foreigners in getting Pakistani citizenship by making illegal changes in birth certificates, marriage certificates, and land records.
Assistant directors and other staff in Nowshera and Mardan have allegedly been directly involved in making fake cards for Afghan citizens. The name of a former district member from Peshawar has also come to light, who was illegally facilitating birth certificates and land transfers.
The official record mentions a person from Peshawar who was a former employee of NADRA and was arrested. He had already been dismissed for making fake documents for Afghan citizens, but he is continuing this work. According to the report, in the areas of Peshawar (Phindu, Chaniabad), changes are made in the land records (mutations) in collaboration with local Patwaris so that foreigners can be proven to be locals before 1980.
The report has clarified that these people are not just working individually but are mostly working in the form of “organized gangs, whose fabric is similar to various government departments.
Sources say that the complete lists of these people have been sent to the relevant authorities, and a large-scale crackdown against them is expected soon. Strict departmental and legal action has also been recommended against these black sheep in the relevant institutions.
Some of the accused kept throwing dust in the eyes of law enforcement agencies by posing as journalists or social workers and continued this illegal work.
According to the report, agents in different areas of Nowshera and Charsadda used to collect huge amounts of money from Afghan residents and create fake records through their operatives in NADRA and Union Council offices to prove them as Pakistani citizens. According to a letter issued by the DIG Operations Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, facilitators in various government departments and private printing press owners have been found involved in making fake documents for Afghan citizens. The law enforcement agencies have recommended that the government immediately take strict departmental and legal action against these government employees.
The report states that Qissa Khawani, Dhaki Nalbandi, and Jangi Mohalla are the hotbeds of fake documents, where Samat Printing Press has been found involved in printing fake documents. The listed individuals are working individually and in groups.
These elements apparently do printing work but secretly produce Afghan citizen cards and other fake identity documents. In addition, local government class IV employees and DC office officials are also accused of playing the role of facilitators in the preparation of birth certificates and domiciles.
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