purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations revea

Technology pervades every facet of our lives. Things like mobile telephones and the Internet have become part of our existence, stuff we can’t live without. Today, however, technology has broader, more profound implications for society and the world we live in. Technology has revolutionized everything, from something as personal as the way we make coffee to something as communal as crime busting.

Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) started out with registering people and issuing national identity cards, making use of the latest technology to assist its goals. Today, NADRA has made technology its business. The organization owns the largest information and communications technology resources in the country, with an IT work force of more than ten thousand and the most expansive communications system of any single Pakistan organization. NADRA is now strategically poised to actually be of consequence to the sociopolitical environment of the country. A seamless, accurate record of the more than 150 million people coupled with high tech analysis capabilities and powerful knowledge discovery tools will enable NADRA to cast an all encompassing electronic net, an all-seeing eye, so to speak, over the populace, keeping track of everything from your family tree to the car you drive. Sound totalitarian? Welcome to the new Pakistan.

Thankfully, reality isn’t all that Orwellian. NADRA’s technologies are dedicated to more benevolent causes. The immense resources of the organization enable it to detect fraud, irregularities and discrepancies in the public sphere. Geographical information systems maintain records of real estate ownership and regional demographics, designed to eventually replace the role of the traditional patwari. Vehicle information systems are being designed to keep tabs on every single automobile that plies the roads of this country, preventing theft and hunting down stolen cars. Biometrics systems currently in place recognize and store fingerprints for verification purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations reveal

issuing national identity cards, making use of the latest technology to assist its goals. Today, NADRA has made technology its business. The organization owns the largest information and communications technology resources in the country, with an IT work force of more than ten thousand and the most expansive communications system of any single Pakistan organization. NADRA is now strategically poised to actually be of consequence to the sociopolitical environment of the country. A seamless, accurate record of the more than 150 million people coupled with high tech analysis capabilities and powerful knowledge discovery tools will enable NADRA to cast an all encompassing electronic net, an all-seeing eye, so to speak, over the populace, keeping track of everything from your family tree to the car you drive. Sound totalitarian? Welcome to the new Pakistan.

Thankfully, reality isn’t all that Orwellian. NADRA’s technologies are dedicated to more benevolent causes. The immense resources of the organization enable it to detect fraud, irregularities and discrepancies in the public sphere. Geographical information systems maintain records of real estate ownership and regional demographics, designed to eventually replace the role of the traditional patwari. Vehicle information systems are being designed to keep tabs on every single automobile that plies the roads of this country, preventing theft and hunting down stolen cars. Biometrics systems currently in place recognize and store fingerprints for verification purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations revea

of the more than 150 million people coupled with high tech analysis capabilities and powerful knowledge discovery tools will enable NADRA to cast an all encompassing electronic net, an all-seeing eye, so to speak, over the populace, keeping track of everything from your family tree to the car you drive. Sound totalitarian? Welcome to the new Pakistan.

Thankfully, reality isn’t all that Orwellian. NADRA’s technologies are dedicated to more benevolent causes. The immense resources of the organization enable it to detect fraud, irregularities and discrepancies in the public sphere. Geographical information systems maintain records of real estate ownership and regional demographics, designed to eventually replace the role of the traditional patwari. Vehicle information systems are being designed to keep tabs on every single automobile that plies the roads of this country, preventing theft and hunting down stolen cars. Biometrics systems currently in place recognize and store fingerprints for verification purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations revea

nable it to detect fraud, irregularities and discrepancies in the public sphere. Geographical information systems maintain records of real estate ownership and regional demographics, designed to eventually replace the role of the traditional patwari. Vehicle information systems are being designed to keep tabs on every single automobile that plies the roads of this country, preventing theft and hunting down stolen cars. Biometrics systems currently in place recognize and store fingerprints for verification purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations revea

purposes. New systems are being designed to recognize individual faces. To this end, NADRA has created an entire section committed exclusively to research and development.

To cite one recent success story, NADRA discovered six people attempting to forge multiple identities. The biometric verification systems at NADRA matched fingerprints submitted with different applications. Six pairs matched, indicating that six individuals had attempted to acquire more than one identity card. Investigations revealed that most of the individuals had applied with different names. Some of the applicants had also specified conflicting paternal names. A Show Cause Notice for the concerned applicants was issued by NADRA in the national press, stating that the individuals were to elaborate their apparently deceitful position within a specified time period, upon failure of which legal action could be taken under the NADRA Ordinance 2000.

People are motivated to acquire multiple identity cards due to a variety of reasons. False identities are utilized by criminals as a weapon of choice to outfox law enforcement. Such institutionalized discrepancy certainly makes crime much simpler. An individual, when suspected or accused of a crime, may display an alternative identity card in order to disprove an allegation. Criminals also use multiple identity cards to avail the services of various organizations that require proof of identity. Banks, membership clubs, hotels, real estate societies, car dealerships, universities, all require identity cards to validate contract. Fraud is easier with multiple identities as a means to wriggle out of contract.

Individuals may also use false identity cards to open fraudulent bank accounts. Such bank accounts may be used to store funds obtained from illicit sources such as drug trafficking and terrorism. Multiple identities make money laundering much simpler for international criminals.

Similarly, multiple identity cards may enable a person to defraud the passport office to obtain multiple passports. Such passports may appear to be perfectly valid, since they are backed up by apparently valid identity cards. The only shortcoming, of course, is that the passport holder may possess as many passports, with as many different names, as he has identity cards. This makes it easier for the individual to defraud international authorities such as immigration services of other countries. For example, a person who is refused a migration visa and barred from reapplying can apply again under a