The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday asked the provincial governments and district coordination officers (DCOs) to report within two weeks on the registration of illegitimate children.
A thee-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a petition by welfare activist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who requested the court to devise a legal strategy to resolve the sensitive and complex issue of registering children of unknown parentage to enable them to live their lives with dignity and respect. Edhi requested the court to give these children an identity and a legally appointed guardian. He also cited in the application that the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had refused to register a minor by telling his daughter Kubra that the registration process could not be initiated without the child’s guardian.