Sindh asks Nadra to extend office timings beyond 5pm

The Sindh chief secretary’s office has requested authorities of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to facilitate people in obtaining computerised national identity cards (CNICs) by extending the office timings beyond 5pm in all divisions and districts of the province.

The request has been made in view of the upcoming sixth national census, whose first phase is scheduled to begin in three districts of province in March. 

The head of a family must possess the CNIC to get himself and his family members counted in the census. However, a large number of people in Sindh are still unregistered with Nadra. 

A letter has now been sent to the Nadra director general for Karachi and Sukkur on behalf of Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon. The letter has emphasised that Nadra’s office timings should be extended beyond 5pm to enable citizens to obtain their CNICs and to ensure that the national census is a successful exercise. 

The divisional commissioners, divisional census coordinators, deputy commissioners and district census coordinators have been advised to mobilise citizens to rush to the Nadra offices to get their CNICs. They have also been told to ensure foolproof security at all Nadra offices and forward daily reports.—PPI

News Desk adds: On February 13, Sindh’s ruling Pakistan Peoples Party had approached Nadra to protest against what it said “an undue delay” in launching a special campaign to issue computerised national identity cards to residents of three districts of the province.

The first phase of the population census will start in Karachi, Hyderabad and Ghotki on March 15. 

The party’s provincial president, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, contacted Nadra’s acting director-general in Sindh by phone to lodge a protest over the delay. 

He urged the federal authorities to do away with the condition that citizens must have a CNIC to be counted during the census in case Nadra was unable to launch any special drive in the three districts.

Khuhro called upon the regional Nadra officials to provide special vans at the nearest possible location so that residents could obtain CNICs without any hassle. Nadra’s acting director general informed the PPP leader that vans had been provided for the drive to issue national identity cards in the three districts, and the number of such vans would be increased in Karachi, the largest city of the country.

Obtaining a CNIC is an uphill task. About 30 percent of Sindh’s population is said to be without the national identity cards, and the provincial government fears that if citizens fail to get their CNICs before the start of the census, the results of the count may not correctly reflect the province’s numerical picture. Sindh’s population was estimated to be over 30 million in 1998.