• Media reports said last month some health department officials were manipulating the system to generate fake certificates
• The FIA has already arrested suspects in different cities and collected data of citizens who benefitted from these certificates

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to crack down on people making fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates to benefit those refusing to participate in the country’s official immunization drive, reported the local media on Wednesday.
According to Dawn, the National Command and Operations Centers (NCOC), which oversees the country’s pandemic response, instructed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to act against people making the certificates.
Media reports maintained in August some health department officials in Karachi were manipulating the system by registering unvaccinated people through a software provided by the National Database Registration Authority to generate fake certificates for Rs2,000.
The government also launched an app last month for anyone who wanted to verify COVID-19 certificates issued by Pakistan.
“In a statement, the NCOC said the FIA has widened its scope of investigation and launched a crackdown against such people [making fake certificates],” Dawn reported. “As a result, suspects have been arrested in different cities and the data of citizens who had gotten fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates has been collected.”
The report added the authorities were going to take legal action against the culprits after completing their investigations.
Pakistan recorded 2,714 new coronavirus cases and 73 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The country began its immunization campaign in last February and has so far fully vaccinated about 22.87 million people.