{"id":18025,"date":"2023-10-26T03:14:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T03:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/new-more-powerful-task-force-formed-to-probe-passports-for-afghans-scandal\/"},"modified":"2023-10-26T03:14:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T03:14:45","slug":"new-more-powerful-task-force-formed-to-probe-passports-for-afghans-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/new-more-powerful-task-force-formed-to-probe-passports-for-afghans-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"New, more powerful task force formed to probe \u2018passports for Afghans\u2019 scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p><figure class=\"media  sm:w-full  w-full  media--stretch    media--uneven  media--stretch\"><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">PESHAWAR: An Afghan refugee woman climbs a ladder onto a truck outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees repatriation centre, on Wednesday.\u2014AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior formed a nine-member joint task force on Wednesday to investigate the issuance of over 12,000 passports to Afghan immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>The joint director general of the Intelligence Bureau is the convener of the task force, which also includes Grade-20 officers of Military Intelligence, Inter-Services Intelligence and Federal Investigation Agency, a notification seen by <em>Dawn<\/em> showed.<\/p>\n<p>Other members include the director general of the interior ministry\u2019s immigration and passports department and Grade-20 officers of Nadra, PTA, FBR and the Ministry of Interior (law). This new team replaces an earlier four-member committee.<\/p>\n<p>The task force will investigate data breaches in the national database, scrutinise unauthorised access, determine the connivance of officials of various institutions and identify potential internal and external connections.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote-level-1\">\n<p>Nine-member team includes members from IB, MI, ISI<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It will also fix responsibility and recommend punitive actions, besides proposing a mechanism with a futuristic outlook to safeguard the integrity of the national database for subsequent implementation.<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s convener has been authorised to co-opt members from any other organisation required and include any other related aspect he deems appropriate to fulfil the committee\u2019s mandate. The task force is expected to submit a report within 15 days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No deadline extension for aliens<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"media  sm:w-full  w-full  media--stretch  \"><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti talks to reporters on Wednesday. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti on Wednesday confirmed that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1779106\">deadline<\/a> for illegal immigrants, including Afghans, to leave Pakistan would not be extended beyond Nov 1.<\/p>\n<p>Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior on the government\u2019s drive against illegal immigrants, the minister said the government\u2019s message about action against illegal residents was misconstrued, as the directive targets all illegal immigrants and not just Afghan nationals.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1779219\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>His remarks came amid criticism suggesting a targeted expulsion of Afghan immigrants due to strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul.<\/p>\n<p>During the discussion, former MNA Syed Agha Rafiullah told the lawmakers that thousands of Biharis living in Karachi\u2019s Malir neighbourhood had no legal status in Pakistan. Mr Bugti said he didn\u2019t know about this and invited Mr Rafiullah for consultations to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Two bills passed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The committee also unanimously passed the bill titled \u201cThe Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023\u201d, aimed at curbing the rising trend of false accusations and malicious criminal prosecution by increasing the duration of punishment. It also unanimously passed \u201cThe Anti-Rape (Investi\u00adgation and Trial) (Amendment) Bill, 2023\u201d, which proposes to make DNA tests mandatory for rape victims.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PESHAWAR: An Afghan refugee woman climbs a ladder onto a truck outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees repatriation centre, on Wednesday.\u2014AFP ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior formed a nine-member joint task force on Wednesday to investigate the issuance of over 12,000 passports to Afghan immigrants. The joint director general of the Intelligence Bureau [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/6539cc033e637.jpg?r=074926","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}