PHC takes notice of fake passports

November 22, 2006 katlang

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday took strong exception to the issuing of passports to Afghan nationals, saying government departments were violating the country’s rules and allowed the Afghans to flout them too.

A two-member PHC bench consisting of justices Ijazul Hassan and Fazlur Rehman Khan dismissed a writ petition of Abdul Khanan, resident of Orakzai Agency, seeking a Pakistani passport. Khanan filed the petition against NADRA that denied issuing him a passport on suspicion of him being an Afghani national. Petitioner’s counsel Mohammad Shoaib Bangash contended that his client Khanan was a Pakistani national and was issued two national identity cards, one old and the other computerised, by NADRA. However, when he tried to get a passport, NADRA denied him.