KABUL - The Population Registration Department (PRD) on Thursday said five million new paper identity cards were issued to people during the past six months, amid claims of forgery.
The PRD started a special tazkira distribution process only for people eligible to participate in elections.
Hamayon Muhtat, PRD head, told a press conference in Kabul that around five million paper ID cards had so far been distributed through 4,000 centers and 1,078 personnel since January.
About insecurity and problems in a number of districts, he said: “Our personnel were not active in 30 districts, therefore people from these visited their nearby districts for taking ID cards.”
Talking about digitalizing identity information, he said: “Fortunately we were able to enter identity information of 16.8 million people into the database.”
He said the identity information of fresh ID card holders was also being added to the database.
About violations in ID cards distribution, he said the PRD after identifying those involved in violations detained and prosecuted them.
Currently 42 cases of violations were being processed at the Attorney General Office, Muhtat added.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Jabbar Purdil, deputy interior minister who attended the conference, said so far 13 people involved in ID cards forgery had been detained in Kabul, Kandahar and Khost provinces.
He said police would not allow the enemies to sabotage the national process of ID cards and elections.
Also present on the occasion was Abdul Baday Sayyad, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) chief, who expressed his concern about forgery in ID cards distribution.
He said people’s concerns about fake ID cards should not be ignored as there was high possibility of forgery in the distribution process.
“We have tasked hundreds of employees with entering information of voters into the database and identifying who took two ID cards or committed fraud,” he added.
However, the PRD head said he had asked the president to task a delegation of experts and auditors with giving a second look to the ID cards distribution process and identifying challenges the process faced.  (Pajhwok)