January 10, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) has issued over 18.3 million new computerized national identity cards, out of a total of 30.2 million applicants who applied for the CNICs.

“A balance of little over 4.5 million CNICs are currently under distribution channels which brings printed CNICs figure to 22.8 million,” said Nadra chairman Saleem Ahmad Moeen.

He told Dawn on Thursday that 120 Nadra swift registration centres (NSRCs) were planned to be operational in 2002 and 2003. “And out of the 120 NSRCs, 31 are operational, 33 would be ready by Jan 30, 2003, while another 14 would be operational by Feb 29, 2003,” he said and added that the remaining NSRCs were planned to be completed by the end of the current year.

For the convenience of old citizens and women folk, and reach out far-flung isolated places, mobile registration vans, he pointed out, were being made available. Two vehicles were already operational, while five were in different stages of development, he added.

A total of 25 vehicles were planned to be procured and fabricated during the year and seeing their efficacy, one such vehicle had been donated by MNA Jehangir Khan Tareen, he said.

In the cities/towns where only one NSRC was located, small satellite registration centres were also being made available with a view to reach out to the people conveniently. “This has been made possible by the active participation and support of the Nazimeen and they carry the same facility as an NSRC, but are compact, smaller in size and are housed in the union councils,” he said and added that more district coordination officers (DCOs) were being contacted to enhance their resources.

The Nadra chairman said: “At an NSRC one can have a new CNIC made through urgent or normal process, get a duplicate CNIC if the card is lost or damaged, get a change made in existing CNIC or get an office mistake corrected,” Mr Moeen said.

For the convenience of those customers, who had applied since long and who had not received their CNIC, their cases were being processed free of charge. “These NSRC also receive Pakistan Origin Card (POC) and national identity cards for overseas Pakistanis’ (NICOP) applications,” he said.

“We will be shortly announcing the issuance of child registration certificate in place of the old Form B,” he said, adding that a pilot project was already working at NSRC in the Rawalpindi cantonment area and would be launched countrywide once all bugs were removed.

Responding to a question, he said that the NSRC was a total cultural change for Nadra, which brought in dignity, honour and respect for the people of Pakistan. “This cultural change hinges on ‘Customer Care’ and not on customer service to the 140 million VIPs of Pakistan,” he added.

Mr Moeen said that the NSRC had been designed as a one-stop-shop to eliminate inaccuracy in the reissuing of the national identity cards. Qualified data entry operators and management staff familiar with registration rules, guide the applicants to have their data entered, digitally capturing the applicant’s particulars, photo, thumb and signature and embedding the information on the principal of live data capture, he added.

He pointed out that citizen’s personal information was confidential information whose integrity, security, secrecy and storage was maintained.

The chairman claimed: “The information is stored in our Data Ware House, a unique facility on all accounts. Up till now 611,111 applicants have visited NSRCs, while 511,192 CNICs have been printed and issued to the customers. The remaining are in various stages of processing. The NSRC has the privilege to make CNIC from that of the president of Pakistan to a common person.”