Officials at the Department of Electronic Identity Cards (e-NIC) on Monday said President Ashraf Ghani has assigned his second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish to review the legal issues surrounding the e-NIC rollout process.
On the recommendation of the National Security Council (NSC), Ghani ordered Danish to assess the legal aspects of e-NIC, said e-NIC chairman Humayoun Muhtat.
“The national security council resolution number 81 states that Mr. Danish, the second vice president, has been asked to assess the overall legal aspects of the population registration authority which also includes e-NIC; we were set to meet Mr. Danish, but our meeting was postponed,” he said.
Concerned about the constant issues around rolling out the ID cards, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has said the delay is also holding back the IT ministry from implementing its programs on electronic governance.
“If the officials direct us to start the rollout process, then we will need two or three months to manage our system, but we are not facing any technical issue,” said Abdul Mujib Mohmand, head of electronic governance department at MCIT.
Muhtat meanwhile said that e-NIC has however launched a study into assessing the actual number of people living in Kabul province.
If the rollout was started three years ago, today, more than six million Afghans would have had their e-NIC cards, said Muhtat.
“If the rollout process of these cards is not started soon, there will extra financial burdens on government to extend the date of the cards,” said Muhtat.
The IT ministry and e-NIC department has held back nearly seven million blank ID cards amid the impasse.
But, a source in the presidential palace has said there are technical issues causing the delay in rolling out the cards – a claim the IT ministry has rejected.
On the basis of the census law, which was approved by the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament), the rollout process of e-NIC should have been started by now.
But following the establishment of the National Unity Government (NUG), e-NIC roll out was delayed for as yet unknown reasons.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah has however said in the past that a lack of interest from within the presidential palace is behind the delay.