KARACHI: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is making it difficult for thousands in the city to obtain their computerised national identity cards putting them at a risk to losing their right to vote, media reports have stated.
In the last few months, Nadra has shut down more than a dozen of its executive registration centres in Karachi, resulting in longer queues at mega registration centres, slowing down the whole process for the general public.
“If you need to get something done from a Nadra office, take leave for a day or two,” said a citizen Rizwan uz Zaman, who wasted an entire day waiting outside a mega centre in North Nazimabad along with his brother as hundreds stood in the queue.
His brother, Qamar uz Zaman, claimed that they got a token at 6 am but their turn came at 10 am. It took them another two hours to get done with the process. “I should have been at work today, but here I am, dealing with this long queue.”
The North Nazimabad mega centre stands next to an under-construction building with no sitting arrangement for the applicants. People can be seen sitting on the floor or leaning against whatever support they can find. The risk of anything heavy falling off the under-construction building is real.
Several Nadra centres have been closed in recent months in areas like Pak Colony, Taimuria, Soldier Bazaar, North Karachi, Keamari, Ittehad Commercial, Baldia Town and SITE.
Another executive registration centre in Naseerabad, a neighbourhood in Federal B Area, closed down a few months ago and a restaurant has opened in the place since.
At Ayesha Manzil, a registration centre is only handling cases of verification — CNICs that have been blocked or flagged.
Even though the board outside clearly reads: ‘registration centre’, it does not take any new CNIC requests, leaving thousands of people of nearby areas with no option but to suffer in queues at the mega centre in North Nazimabad.
A swift registration centre next to Nisar Shaheed Park in Karachi’s DHA locality has also been closed, and residents are now forced to visit the mega centre in DHA, off Korangi Road.
Noman Ahmed, an applicant at Nadra registration centre in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, pointed out that since he lived in North Karachi, it would have been easier for him to apply at the mega centre in North Nazimabad, but he chose the Jauhar branch just to avoid the crowd.
“At the mega centre, you sometimes fail to enter the office after waiting for a whole day,” he said. “People who don’t know that their CNICs can be made from any centre across Karachi are bound to wait countless hours for their turn.”
The massive crowd outside the mega centre in North Nazimabad explains Noman’s point, whereas the crowds at the other two Nadra mega centres in DHA and SITE areas are no different.
A senior Nadra official, on the request of anonymity, confirmed that over a dozen swift and executive centres were shut down in recent months to divert the public to the mega centres. “The move was aimed at streamlining the process; however, it did not go as planned.”
The decision, he said, had not eased things for the people who now had to travel long distances because their nearby centres were closed.
Last month, Nadra Chairman Usman Mobin paid surprise visits to Nadra centres in the city, including the mega centres in SITE and DHA, without revealing his identity. When his turn came, his papers were rejected by the staff on duty. Later, he suspended two staffers for “causing trouble” to the citizens.
Political parties, on the other hand, view the closure of these centres as detrimental to the democratic process and fear that a large number of their voters may not be able to vote because of the delays.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan spokesman Aminul Haq said that merely creating mega centres was not a solution to the problem and that Nadra should open more centres keeping in view the size of Karachi’s population instead of closing the existing ones.
“How will the people exercise their right to vote if they are facing so many difficulties in obtaining CNICs?”
He termed the Nadra chairman’s recent directive for the centres to operate from 9am to 9pm and suspending the staffers a cosmetic move with no far-reaching benefits.
“Instead of increasing staffers, the current staff is being forced to work for about 12 hours, which is detrimental to the well-being of the staffers as well,” he said.
A Nadra source also confirmed this was the case with centres which were ordered to work for 12 hours after the chairman’s recent visit to Karachi.