NADRA rejects voters data leak claims    

ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on Tuesday rejected accusation regarding leakage of voters data for General Election 2018, saying data of voters was completely safe and sound.

At a press conference, Director General NADRA (Projects), Zulfiqar Ali, flanked by other director generals, vehemently contradicted news items related to voters data leak and termed them as "baseless and incorrect."

NADRA had not shared data of even a single voter with anybody, or any political party. The possibility of sharing voters' data with unrelated persons did not exist, the DG said.

Director General (Operations) Brig (Retd) Nassar Ahmed Mir DG RHO Islamabad, Zulfiqar Ahmed, DG (Admin) Tahir Akram and other senior officers of the authority were also present.

The NADRA director generals denied being associated with any political party and stressed that not even a single citizen's data was shared through any platform.

Giving further details, Zulfiqar Ali said an internal e-mail was shown on television by a private channel. "The email was not linked to data leakage," he said.

Ali further said the press conference was not in response to a political statement by any party. Ever since NADRA was established, data had not been leaked, he said.

He said the authority was audited every year and had been acknowledged by Supreme Court and added that the Supreme Court had also commended NADRA's work in dual nationality case.

Zulfiqar Ali stated that false accusations had been levelled near the election time in past as well and it was being done now. He said that a NADRA officer, Syed Muzaffir Ali, who was sacked on corruption charges, had leveled allegations of data leakage.

Replying to a question, he said appointment of Chairman NADRA was made purely on merit and after meeting all required criteria.

It merits mention here that in a letter to NADRA Chairman Usman Yousaf Mobin, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had alleged that NADRA officials had shared details of voters with "unrelated persons".

A NADRA official had earlier denied the data leakage accusation, reiterating the data of voters was `completely safe.'

ECP had demanded the NADRA Chairman to conduct an inquiry into the matter.