The government has appointed Tariq Malik as the new chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). This was announced by Minister for Information and Technology Fawad Chaudhary on Tuesday in a press conference after a weekly meeting of the federal cabinet.
The cabinet in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan approved his appointment as the NADRA chairperson.
According to his Twitter bio, Malik is serving as United National Development Program (UNDP) chief technical advisor. He has served as NADRA chairperson in the past. He was also awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the government as per his Twitter bio.
Malik had served as the head of NADRA during the tenure of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), but he stepped down from the top post in 2014 over some differences with the PML-N government.
In Dec 2013, the PML-N government had sacked Malik without notice but he moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his removal. The court restored him as the chairman, but he stepped down from the post within a month after the government formed a seven-member board headed by the interior secretary to make his office toothless.
Then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar had also accused Malik of undertaking over 100 foreign trips in five years without the approval of the competent authority, violating PPRA rules in procurement, possessing the citizenship of four countries and lying about his educational credentials.
However, Malik had denied these charges and he was also acquitted by the court in a dual nationality case.
