Saudi Arabia identifies 1,296 Afghans with counterfeit Pakistani passports
Nadra told to provide detailed update on action against officials over issuing fake documents
April 25, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Interior and Narcotics was informed on Thursday that Saudi authorities had identified 1,296 individuals with fake Pakistani passports, who were later confirmed to be Afghan nationals, The News reported.
Chairing the meeting at Parliament House, Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman directed the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to provide a detailed update in the committee’s next sitting on action taken against officials involved in issuing bogus documents and tampering with the national database.
The Senate standing committee meeting was held under Senator Rehman’s leadership.
In the meeting, Senator Irfan Siddiqui asked how many passports were made in the last 5 years that did not belong to Pakistanis. DG Passport Mustafa Jamal Qazi said a total of 1,296 individuals holding bogus Pakistani passports were later identified as Afghan nationals.
“Apart from this, 45 more cases have come," he said. DG Passports said that it has been reported that these people have been deported to Afghanistan. “Of those who were punished for making fake passports, 35 are assistant directors,” he said.
Also, thousands of bogus Pakistani passports were made, and most of these passports are from KP and Gujranwala, Gujarat. “There are 4,500 passports for which we do not have data while 3,000 passports were made by photo-swapping, 6,000 were fakes made by intruding into Nadra data. These 12,000 bogus passport holders are not in Pakistan.”
The committee also discussed reforms regarding the expiry of CNICs. The chief operating officer, Nadra, explained that, according to Nadra rules, every CNIC must be renewed every ten years.
During the meeting, the chairman raised the issue of the inclusion of unrelated individuals in the family trees of genuine CNIC holders.
To counter such fraud, Nadra has now adopted a policy requiring physical verification of the applicant’s blood relatives, along with biometric capture of the family member.
