KARACHI, Aug 12: The Karachi city district government and the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) have entered into an agreement to implement a Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) through which the latter will computerise birth, death, marriage and divorce records of the city.
City Nazim Mustafa Kamal and Nadra Chairman Brigadier (retd) Saleem Ahmed Moin signed the agreement in a ceremony held here at the Civic Centre on Saturday.
The implementation of the CRMS will bring uniformity in the process of issuance of birth, death and other certificates in all the 178 union councils of the city. However, all birth, death or other certificates which had been issued earlier will remain valid and will not be revoked.
Nadra launched the CRMS on the directives of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as part of maintaining a national database with a special focus on birth and death records.
The CRMS had already been introduced in the Punjab through which a newborn will also get his/her national identity card number at the time of the issuance of his/her birth certificate.
EDO Information Technology Syed Mumtazul Haq told Dawn that Nadra will charge Rs50 for the issuance of each certificate.
“The amount will be charged as the printing cost of the certificate, which has special security features,” he added.
UCs to retain control
He, however, maintained that every UC of Karachi will have complete administrative control over this system and informed this reporter that the issuance of computerised certificates from the UCs will begin once the officials concerned have been trained by Nadra.
The EDO said that Nadra will provide all technical assistance regarding software and hardware management and will impart training to secretaries of the union councils in the city. The authority will depute 18 officials in each town of the metropolis to provide technical assistance to the UCs for the supervision of the system on the town level. The information system of the city government and Nadra will be linked and updated on a weekly basis.
Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, the city nazim said that the CDGK was encouraging the use of information technology in everyday affairs to provide more convenience and facilities to the citizens.
He said the new system will not only ensure correct documentation but also help in solving the registration problems.
The Nadra chairman said that the authority has made great progress in the field of database management and it was on top of the list of other third world countries, as no other country could make a passport like Nadra was making for Pakistan.
He said that Nadra will provide all possible technical assistance to the city government and observed that with the implementation of this system, the chances of fake documentation would be minimised.
On July 14, 2007, the City Council unanimously allowed the city nazim to sign an agreement for the implementation of the CRMS with Nadra.
