KARACHI, Feb 10: Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider inaugurated on Sunday first Nadra Swift Registration Centre in Karachi located in Awami Markaz on Sharea-i-Faisal.

This is the second centre of its kind in the country after Rawalpindi equipped with all facilities required for issuance of Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) under one roof where an applicant is not required to bring photographs or fill-in CNIC application forms as all these functions will be formed electronically at the centre.

After completion of formalities the filled up form would be handed over to the applicant for verification of the particulars of the form from any government officer of grade 16 or above, councillor or Naib Nazim of the local government.

The attested form will have to be submitted to the centre which will charge Rs60 for delivery of the CNIC with in one month and Rs180 for its delivery in 10 days. The form would be conveyed to Nadra Headquarters for verification of particulars from the database before preparation of the card.

Speaking on the occasion Gen Haider said that this centre would provide a facility to the citizens with efficiency in a respectable manner. For this purpose due care had been taken by introducing a token system and proper sitting arrangements besides installation of 12 working terminals so that at a time 12 persons could be attended without any hassle.

At least four more such centres would become functional in Karachi’s different parts by the end of this month, the minister said in his inaugural address.

Replying to questions the interior minister said that delays in issuance of CNIC was due to flaws in distribution system of the cards and handling of additional work load of preparation of electoral lists which was entrusted to Nadra by the Election Commission of Pakistan. But now, he said, Nadra had reached an agreement with the Pakistan Post Office for providing better services and timely delivery of the cards and from Feb 20 their distribution would be through post offices.

In reply to a question Nadra Chairman Brig (Retd) Saleem Ahmed Moeen, who earlier welcomed the interior minister on his arrival at the SRC, said out of 65 million Pakistanis eligible to own CNIC so far only seven million cards had been prepared and out of seven million only three million had been delivered with a backlog of four million cards for distribution.

Referring to the importance of the CNIC Gen Haider said that all care had been taken to provide Pakistani citizens a very secure card with all international standard features of security as it was an important document which in future would be required even to get water, gas, power and phone connections.

He said that in view of the population in Karachi three more such centres would be established soon while one such centre would start functioning in Hyderabad by Feb 24 and in Mirpurkhas and Larkana by the end of March.

“Nadra has planned to establish 70 such centres in the country during the year which after easing the workload of CNIC would gradually start facilitating the citizens in filling the new passport forms for issuance of machine readable passports.

He said work on the machine readable passports would start after approval of the project from ECNEC.

However, a pilot project of machine readable passports had functioning trouble free at Quaid-i-Azam International Airport Karachi and soon this system would be installed also in Lahore and Islamabad. Later this system would be extended to all entry and exit points in the country which would facilitate updating the record to the immigration, passport and Nadra about every person’s entry and exit.

Asked if all Pakistanis would be able to get the CNIC before the October elections, the minister said that all those who would filled the forms by March 31 would be issued CNIC before the general elections.

ALIENS: Regarding complaints that some foreigners had also managed to get the new cards the minister said that all those Bengalis who had been living in Pakistan before 1971 they were all Pakistani citizens and did not fall in the category of foreigners.