Case registered against three for issuing CNIC to NAT Geo famed ‘Afghan Girl’

KARACHI: Police on Friday registered a case against three persons of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for allegedly issuing a Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) to Afghan woman Sharbat Bibi.

The NAT Geo famed ‘Afghan girl’ was named in a case as one of the thousands of Afghan refugees who managed to dodge Pakistan’s computerised system to get an identity card last year.

The news appeared last year when Pakistani officials confirmed that the Afghan woman more known as Sharbat Gula had applied for a Pakistani identity card in the northwestern city of Peshawar in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi.

Later a senior official in NADRA’s Peshawar office confirmed that Bibi and her two sons, Rauf Khan and Wali Khan, were issued cards on the same day.

Reportedly, Deputy assistant NADRA Peshawar and two other officials issued Pakistani identity cards to the Afghan family.

Meanwhile, Police officials have started a search operation fort their arrests who have been on a run.

 

Who is Sharbat Bibi?

Well-known photographer Steve McCurry took unquestionably the most iconic picture of all times in December 1984 at a refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar.

The image stared from the magazine cover of National Geographic in June 1985 and remained a mystery for the following 17 years.

For many, her photo has been close to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and so, National Geographic made a documentary on her life called the ‘Mona Lisa of Afghan war’.

McCurry later joined a crew from National Geographic Television & Film to find for her and hoped to see her alive again.

They showed her very photograph across the refugee camp in Pakistan where McCurry had captured her as a schoolgirl. Sharbar Bibi was discovered by National Geographic in 2002.