TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 16: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has made a mockery of the efforts of a disabled student who has been trying to get a Computerised National Identity Card for the last four years.

Rizwan, a resident of Chak 521-GB who is without both hands and legs, told journalists that he had passed his intermediate examination in 2006 as a private candidate (with 594 marks) and was now studying in BA’s first semester at the Allama Iqbal Open University.

However, he said, he could not appear in the examination scheduled to be held in December because the university required CNIC for issuance of the roll number slip. Rizwan said he had been trying to get a CNIC since 2005, but Nadra authorities had initially rejected his case for he could not fulfill the condition of recording finger print.

There was a happy news for him that Nadra had decided to issue the CNICs to all such applicants who were without hands and could not give finger prints. Subsequently, his application was accepted by a local Nadra office in February this year under the new policy and an application number (TT 00345397) was allotted to him, he said, adding that still the card had not been issued to him.

A Nadra official told this correspondent that the condition of finger print for the special persons had been waived, but the authority had to make changes to its software on which work was in progress at the head office (Islamabad).

He said there were hundreds of such cases all over the country and Nadra was conscious of the fact and working on the software on a war footing.

Rizwan has requested Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top authorities to direct the Nadra officials to expedite his case so that his academic year is not wasted.