PESHAWAR, March 11: Speakers at a function held on Thursday said that issuing national identity cards to foreigners was against the national interest enabled them to get involved in illegal activities
might have a negative impact on the country's sovereignty.
The speakers at the function held at the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development were of the view that issuance of computerized national identity cards to foreigners might cost the country heavily.
The function was arranged by the provincial local government and rural development department in collaboration with the Plan International to distribute awards among union councils for implementing the birth registration system under a pilot project in Nowshera, Abbottabad, Mardan and Swabi districts.
NWFP Local Government and Rural Development Minister Sardar Idrees said an accurate database was important to ensure prudent development planning. He said the union councils should give top priority to birth registration to help determine their development needs.
He asked the authorities concerned to direct all the union councils to to discuss the number of births in their areas in their meetings. He agreed to a proposal that the Plan Pakistan should donate computers to all the town municipal administrations to develop databases and linkage with the National Database and Registration Authority.
The chief of the United Nations Children's Fund's provincial office, Osama Makkawi Khogali, said: "The issuance of identity cards forms an integral part of efforts to protect the sovereignty of a country so that it should not be blamed for the mistakes of others." He said record of births and deaths was necessary for development planning.
NWFP Nadra Director Asif Kamal Zeb said his department was facing problems because some union council nazims' attested the documents of foreigners for computerized national identity cards.
He said improved birth registration at the union council level and the issuance of computerized identity cards would help in the preparation of a database.
A number of union council nazims, naib nazims and councillor's attended the function. Plan Pakistan Country Director Dr Purnima Chattopadhayay Dut and Siddiq Ahmed Khan, project manager, birth registration, said the target areas had recorded marked improvement in birth registration practices and the ration of registration had increased from about 30 per cent to 80 per cent.
They said the project would now be launched in 20 districts and later all over the country. The speakers said birth registration was the first right of a child and there was a need to inform the society about its importance.
