Muhammad Tariq Malik, was appointed as Chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Pakistan, after a transparent and highly competitive worldwide selection process. Before his appointment in NADRA he was working as Chief Technical Advisor, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where he was advising on ‘Digital Governance’ to 130+ member states across five regions spread over worldwide. Prior to joining UNDP, he served World Bank as a Senior Technical Consultant. He was a member of the core team who helped to initiate the worldwide ‘ID for Development’ (#ID4D) Program as well as authored the framework of international standards for digital identity. Tariq is among the ten core members of Technical Experts Group (TEG) of World Bank who supported client countries with ID planning and implementation.[1] His name was included in the World’s 100 Most Influential People in ‘Digital Government’ by a European think tank known as Apolitical [2] He was also named among Top 100 Digital Influencers in the ‘Digital Community’ by One World Identity (OWI)- a New York based independent identity research and strategy think tank focused on cyber security, digital commerce and risk management [3] Before joining World Bank Malik helped various governments to optimize use of Big Data and advanced data analytics from the platform of Teradata Inc. USA.

Malik worked on a multi-biometric system resulting in registration of more than 121 million citizens along their associated biometric attributes. CNN[7] called him ‘Man on mission’ when he identified 3.5 million tax evaders in Pakistan using ‘Data Analytics’ coupled with biometrics. Tariq led similar projects and development based interventions in USA, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Russia, Malawi and Tanzania. He helped various institutions of United Nations (UNHCR, ICAO, UNDP) and World Bank (Poverty Score Card, BISP, Disaster Management and ID Ecosystem), to accomplish development goals with transparency. Prior to that he served as Deputy CIO in Wayne County, State of Michigan, where he led design, development and implementation of an online Property Tax System. Throughout his career, Malik has helped governments to improve service delivery using innovative technologies. Result-based achievements earned him various national and international awards. State of Pakistan conferred highest award in Technology – (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) 2013 for using technology to improve governance. Malik won Teradata’s 2012 national ‘CIO of the Year’ award[8] and was recognized at the 2009 ID World International Congress in Italy as the recipient of the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ for his work as an international biometrics leader. Malik holds Master’s degrees in both International Management (Heidelberg, Germany) and Computer Science (QAU Islamabad). His Bachelor’s degree is in Mathematics and statistics. He was trained at the JFK School of Government, Harvard University[9] and Stanford University. Malik’s articles are published in National and International Publications. [10][11][12]
References
- “id4d – Who is involved”. worldbank.org.
- “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2019”. Apolitical.
- “Tariq Malik named among top 100 digital influencers”Dawn.com
- “Govt All Thumbs Within Hours Nadra Chief Sacked Then Reinstated”. tribune.com.pk.
- “E-bullying?”. January 16, 2014.
- “Nadra Chairman Resigns Cites Personal Reasons”. tribune.com.pk.
- Shadbolt, Peter. “Pakistan hatches scheme to claw back tax”. CNN.
- “Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
- “Panel 1 | Foundations of National Identification Systems: Political, legal and civil frameworks”. July 15, 2015.
Publications ( Articles/Blogs )
- ‘Is COVID-19 Pakistan’s Black Swan Event for Digital Payments? ‘ May 1, 2020
https://www.cgdev.org/blog/covid-19-pakistans-black-swan-event-digital-payments
Published by Center for Global development, Washington DC, USA - ‘Malawi’s Journey Towards Transformation Lessons from its National ID Project,’ August 1, 2020
https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/malawi-journey-towards-transformation.pdf
Published by Center for Global development, Washington DC, USA - Technology in the Service of Development: The NADRA Story, 2014
https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/CGD-Essay-Malik_NADRA-Story_0.pdf
Published by Center for Global development, Washington DC, USA - ‘Catalogue of Technical Standards for Digital Identification Systems’
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/707151536126464867/pdf/129743-WP-PUBLIC-ID4D-Catalog-of-Technical-Standards.pdf
Published by World Bank, ID4D. Washington DC, USA - ‘Towards a Somali Identification System: ID4D Diagnostics’
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/185701524689472792/ID4D-Country-Diagnostic-Somalia.pdf
Published by World Bank, ID4D, Washington DC, USA - Crises, Technology and Social Protection, April 11 2020
https://www.dawn.com/news/1548208/crises-technology-and-social-protection
Published by Dawn - ‘Digital Transformation for FBR Transparency,’ February 22, 2020
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2161726/digital-transformation-fbr-transparency
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Electoral Reforms – the unfinished agenda,’ June 2, 2018
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1598187/electoral-reform-unfinished-agenda
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Bigdata can shame grand corruption,’ May 28, 2016
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1112068/big-data-can-shame-grand-corruption
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Good Governance and its digital dividends,’ January 06, 2016
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1022966/good-governance-and-its-digital-dividend
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Elections are not free unless verifiable,’ August 31, 2015
https://tribune.com.pk/story/948298/elections-are-not-free-unless-verifiable
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Using Big data for big decisions,’ February 11, 2014
https://tribune.com.pk/story/670408/using-big-data-for-big-decisions
Published by Express Tribune - ‘The need for NADRA to stay relevant,’ July 12, 2013
https://tribune.com.pk/story/576077/the-need-for-nadra-to-stay-relevant
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Technology and democracy,’ January 11, 2013
https://tribune.com.pk/story/561966/technology-and-democracy
Published by Express Tribune - ‘Using data analytics’, February 27, 2013
https://tribune.com.pk/story/513420/using-data-analytics
Published by Express Tribune