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| October 19, 2006 | Thursday | Ramazan 25, 1427 |
Nadra starts issuing cards to refugees
ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Under the plan to register Afghan refugees living in Pakistan for their voluntary repatriation, the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) has started issuing proof of registration cards to refugees, a Nadra official said here on Wednesday.
The exercise is a follow-up to the census of Afghans conducted by the government in March 2005.
According to the census report, 3.048 million Afghans in Pakistan, the official said adding that so far 2.8 million of them had returned to Afghanistan since 2002.
The official said that over 4,000 Afghans had so far been registered with Nadra and had been given proof of registration cards under a pilot exercise started early this month.
He said the project worth $5.5995 million was funded by UNHCR while ministry of Safron was overseeing the process.
The proof of registration card would be valid for three years however if an Afghan refugee is repatriated in the meanwhile, it would become invalid.
No fees would be charged for this registration exercise, the official said adding children under five years of age would be listed on the cards of their mother.
Highlighting features of PoR, he said it included date of arrival in Pakistan, area of origin, ethnic background, obstacles to return to Afghanistan and profile in Pakistan.
The ten-week programme would be conducted through 90 centres of the authority supported by mobile registration vans across the country.
HARSH WINTER: A preliminary winter outlook from the meteorological department for the earthquake-affected areas predicts that the coming winter will be severe with average temperatures likely to be colder than normal.
The met office has made forecast according to the prevailing regional and global conditions, which indicate that winter in Pakistan will arrive about one to two weeks earlier than normal.
In December, January and February, day temperatures are likely to remain several degrees below freezing point in mountainous regions with minimum night temperatures sometimes as low as -15 degrees Celsius. —APP
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