The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all provinces to help National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for registration of orphans and implementation of NADRA laws in true spirit.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani comprising Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Mushir Alam resumed the hearing of the case on a petition filed by social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi regarding the registration of orphans.
Court Assistant Tariq Mahmood said that rights of the orphans in Islam have been taken care of and Islam calls for patronage of orphans but does not allow anyone the right of paternity. Afnan Kundi, counsel for NADRA, submitted NADRA report before the court and stated that NADRA prepared a comprehensive report in 2012-13 regarding registration of orphans.
He said that sharing the concerns of the apex court regarding the well being of orphans, NADRA is pro-actively seeking to resolve the issue of registration of orphans at both policy and practical levels since 2006. The focus has been on the registration of such children, especially in institutional orphanages, he said.
He said that in the policy formulation process, the most hampering issue of naming the parents of orphans with unknown parentage has been tackled. He said guidance from the Islamic Ideology Council and fatwas (religious verdicts) from Kingdom of Saudia Arabia and Iran has also been sought to iron out this issue and it was decided that any unspecified name can be given to the patronage of children with unknown parentage.
Kundi said NADRA had written letters to 31 organisations, whose names were present on a list provided by Ministry of Social Welfare, to register their organisations with NADRA and obtain a unique ID. He said only 610 orphans have so far been registered with NADRA and 3,087 children had still not registered with the authority.
Kundi said that in order to ease the registration process, NADRA has declared that instead of an authority letter from a court, any orphanage may become guardian with an affividavit, adding that NADRA has also issued smart cards for orphans residing in Pakistan Baitul Mal’s sweet homes and these cards will have some inherent features like vaccination record, education record, financial transactions of such children and unknown parentage will be registered for issuance of Child Registration Certificate (CRC).
