The Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday reinstated Lieutenant General Munir Afsar as chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) after suspending a previous court ruling that had declared his appointment null and void.
Lt Gen Afsar was appointed as the chairman of Nadra in October 2023 after the then-cabinet members had given their approval for the appointment, following their deliberation on the three candidates proposed by the interior ministry.
Gen Afsar was among the 12 major generals who were promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in October 2022.
His impressive career has been marked by substantial experience in IT-related technical development and management within the Pakistan Army as well as his service with Pakistan’s Mission in the United Nations (UN).
Notably, Lieutenant General Afsar has been awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) for his outstanding contributions.
He holds an MPhil in Public Policy and National Security Management, and during the 2010 floods, he authored a research paper on public policy response within the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department.
The newly-appointed NADRA chairman completed his MS in GIS and remote sensing and received recognition through a presidential award for his paper on rapid geospatial data generation via photometry.
Additionally, he holds an MS in National Resource Strategy and specializes in C&IT Industry and Supply Chain Management from NDU Washington.
In terms of his IT-related experience, he served as a Military Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Officer at the UN. He also played a pivotal role in the development of a GIS application for flood recovery during the 2010 floods in Pakistan.
Furthermore, during his tenure as a Major General, he assumed the position of Director General of the DG Command, Control, Communication, Computers, and Intelligence (C41) Directorate, responsible for the overarching management of IT.
Following his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General, he continued his service as the Inspector General of Communication and IT, and later as the Commander of Pakistan Army Cyber Command.
