Without CNICs

Thankfully, we Pakistanis are lucky to have been spared from the worst of Covid-19. Also, the government’s vaccination campaign is picking up slowly and steadily. However, the rate of infections is still quite high, especially among unvaccinated people who constitute a larger percentage of the total number of Covid-19 patients. At present, Karachi has one of the highest infection rates. The main reason for this worrying situation is a large pocket of unvaccinated population comprising people from low-income households. Some house maids and labourers have not been vaccinated as they don’t have their CNICs. These people couldn’t get their identity cards made because they didn’t have their birth certificates as most of them were born at their homes in villages – and other places that didn’t maintain proper birth records.

To make its costly vaccination campaign really effective, the government must either relax the condition of birth certificates for such persons or find a way to vaccinate them without CNICs. Whatever decision it makes, it must act on it urgently.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi