JUI-F urges Nadra to solve CNIC applicants’ issues at its centres

Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders said on Thursday the offices of the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) in Karachi had become a nuisance for the people instead of providing them with facilities.

The JUI-F leaders from West and Keamari districts made ethis remark during a meeting with senior Nadra official Anees Khan. Qari Muhammad Usman, who led the delegation, informed the Nadra officials that work was being done 24 hours a day at only six to eight counters at Nadra’s mega centres, particularly in Keamari and West districts, instead of making all counters active.

Usman also complained to the Nadra officials about the severe shortage of staff in the centres and said the Nadra offices in most parts of the city issued only a limited number of tokens. “Residents have been forced to wait for several hours only to get tokens,” he said. “Nadra officials ask the people to visit the centres for no reason.”

Usman said the mobile vehicle service was provided in densely-populated areas of the city in the past. “The service should be restored immediately.” The JUF-I leader said Karachi’s permanent residents who belonged to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were usually asked to make an identity card in their hometowns, which, he said, was very inappropriate. “According to the constitution and law, every citizen of Pakistan can make a CNIC anywhere in the country.”

Usman said Nadra’s higher officials should take notice of the discriminatory treatment with millions of residents who belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but had being living in Karachi for a long time. He asked that the residents be heard and their issues solved.

He said residents also complain that there is no water facility in many centres. “Water and ventilation facilities should be provided. Also, in some centres where there is air- conditioners, they are inactive, which causes inconvenience not only to the people but also to the staff of the centres.”

The senior Nadra official assured the delegation of resolving the issues the people were facing in making CNICs. “Within three months, all the counters in all the mega centres across the city will be restored and no stone will be left unturned in providing relief to the people,” he said. JUI-F District Keamari secretary-general Syed Akbar Shah Hashmi, District West chief Mufti Muhammad Khalid and other leaders were also present in the meeting.