An Accountability Court (AC) on Wednesday dismissed the decision of National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA) for blocking the CNIC of Senator Hafiz Hamadullah and termed the decision as illegal. Chief Justice Athar Minallah announced the decision on a petition filed by Senator Hamadullah challenging the blockage of his CNIC.
The chief justice stated that the nationality of someone was the biggest basic human right and NADRA was not authorized to remove it. He further remarked how Nadra could view the report of intelligence agencies. The bench asked the Nadra official to provide the details of other cases in which it had taken the same decisions on the basis of such reports. The intelligence agencies were under relevant ministry and divisions, and their report could be received through the proper channel. Expressing annoyance, the chief justice asked the Nadra officials whether they knew what could be the results of blocking CNIC of someone even for one day. Justice Minallah also asked that under what law the Nadra had established district committees. After this, the court dismissed Nadra’s decision to block Hafiz Hamdullah’s CNIC. It may be mentioned here that Nadra had blocked the CNIC in October 2019 which was challenged before IHC.
