ISLAMABAD    -   The National Database and Registra­tion Authority (NADRA) has initiated criminal proceedings against those employees who have been allegedly involved in unauthorized access to the data of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir’s family.

An official source informed The Na­tion that as many as six NADRA em­ployees had been terminated from service for illegally accessing data of the Army Chief’s family.

The action was taken after Chair­man NADRA Tariq Malik ordered four separate inquiries on December 23, 2022 and March, 2, 2023.

A joint probe conducted by NADRA and a sensitive security agency in De­cember 2022, discovered that Farooq Ahmed, a junior executive employee working in Benazir Income Support Program, was the first person to have unlawfully accessed the data.

The high-powered inquiry commit­tee technically analyzed logins, user IDs, system logs and IP addresses.

As a result of the probe, as many as 10 employees were identified who il­legally accessed COAS’s family data. As a result, the accused were cross-examined and a charge sheet was is­sued to them on January 6 this year.

After that, the two inquiry commit­tees found six officials responsible.

The committee imposed a major penalty of termination from service under the Government Servants (Ef­ficiency & Discipline) Rules 1973 on these six employees. The source privy to the development said Chairman NADRA Tariq Malik was committed to safeguard the personal informa­tion of citizens against unauthorized or illegal access as he believed that the security of data and the privacy of ordinary citizens was as important as the security of individuals in power.

The official source said that chair­man NADRA has issued some strict guidelines as a result of which, no em­ployee was authorized to log in of any other colleague. Similarly, no data en­try operator had the permission to ac­cess personal data of any citizen and biometric of a family member was an essential requirement to access any­body’s family tree.