August 09, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 24, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Aug 8: About 68 per cent of people living in the Rawalpindi district have registered themselves with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and received their computerised national identity cards (CNICs).

This was stated by the Nadra General Manager for Islamabad region, Northern Areas and Kashmir, Col (retired) Zahid Iqbal, while talking to reporters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

Quoting facts and figures, the Nadra official said so far 2,370,000 people had obtained their new identity cards.

According to him, the authority is capable of issuing 90,000 cards on daily basis, but only 25,000 to 30,000 citizens were submitting applications each day.

Mr Iqbal said Nadra in collaboration with the city district government was currently working out a schedule under which mobile vans would be stationed in each union council to enable citizens above 18 years of age to avail the facility and get their identity cards.

The Nadra general manager stressed that holding more than one national identity card was a serious offence for which the government had raised the punishment from one year to 10 years imprisonment.

Persons having more than one ID cards will not get their passports as their data is being provided to the relevant offices, while names of such people are also being advertised in newspapers, he added.

Mr Iqbal categorically said that no data had ever been provided to foreign agencies, adding that it was being withheld safely by the Pakistan government.

“Foreign countries have praised the way Nadra is compiling data, and have accepted that the travel documents of Pakistanis travelling abroad are always complete in all respects.”

The database maintained by Nadra has been adjudged as being one of the most efficient in the world, he said.

About CNICs in English language, the official said any citizen making such a request got Nadra’s approval without the requirement of visa or passport.

City District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas, District Coordination Officer Irfan Illahi and other managers of the local government were also present on the occasion.