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KARACHI, Dec 12: The federal government and the National Database and Registration Authority were on Friday issued notices for Dec 19 in a writ petition challenging the scheduled cancellation of old national identity cards on Dec 31.
Petitioner-lawyer Shaukat Ali Shaikh submitted before a Sindh High Court division bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Zia Perwez that Nadra had no authority under the National Registration Act of 1973 or the Nadra Ordinance of 2000 to cancel the identity cards issued by the government of Pakistan under the former law.
Its primary function was to develop a national database, yet the authority was apparently unaware of the millions of people who had not received the new, computerized cards.
The national identity cards, he said, not only identified the person but also the nationality of the holder. The cancellation of old cards without their replacement by new ones would officially deprive the holders of their identity and nationality, which was manifestly unconstitutional. It would also disenfranchise a huge number of voters in national, provincial and local elections and byelections, which was equally repugnant to the Constitution. The cancellation would also disentitle a large number of people from applying for jobs, seeking admissions, obtaining passports or opening a bank account.
The lawyer blamed Nadra for lack of progress in issuing the new cards. Referring to the number of people subsisting below the poverty line, he said the new cards should be supplied to them free of cost and on the payment of a nominal fee to those who could afford. Mobile teams should be sent to every household to issue new cards promptly. He referred to a statement of provincial home adviser Aftab Ahmad Shaikh and opposition leader Nisar A. Khuhro to assert that a large number of people would suffer hardship and inconvenience if the old cards were cancelled without ensuring the provision of new ones.
MARRIAGE HALLS: The Sindh High Court asked the city district government of Karachi (CDGK) on Friday to forward within 15 days the regularization applications of the 46 unauthorized marriage halls/lawns pending with it to the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), which shall process them and issue challans within 15 days.
Disposing of a suit for declaration and permanent injunction against demolition moved by the halls/lawns through Advocate Farough Naseem to the extent of the KBCA, Justice Ataur Rahman directed the authority to process the applications and issue challans in accordance with the regularization rates prescribed by the Sindh government in its notification of August 21, 2002. The plaintiffs would pay the charges within two weeks of the receipt of the challans and the KBCA would take a decision on the regularization plans within two weeks thereafter. The authority was restrained from taking any adverse action in the meanwhile and till the completion of all the mandatory requirements in accordance with the law.
The KBCA would, however, be at liberty to take action, including demolition, in respect of the halls/lawns that “do not pay the regularization fee or whose construction or part thereof does not come within the scheme of regularization as per Sindh Ordinance VIII, 2000 (the Sindh Regulations and Control-Use of Plots and Construction of Buildings Ordinance)”, the order, which was reserved on Tuesday, clarified. It asked the CDGk to provide assistance to the KBCA in its operation against violation of the approved plans. Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan, who represented the KBCA, had argued that the suit was not maintainable as all the plaintiff halls/ lawns were built on residential or industrial plots without any approval for conversion. They were in gross violation of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979, and the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations. One hall was constructed in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on a plot meant for Roti plant without any sanction or approved plan. The lawyer cited superior court judgments declaring that land use was to be determined by the leasing authority.
