LARKANA, June 26: The people of Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot districts have to stand in long queues for hours and some times days on end to get Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) since the rioters brunt down main office of Nadra during Dec 27 riots following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Nadra has made temporary arrangements for issuance of CNICs through a mobile van parked near the office of the executive district officer of education, three kilometres from the city on Larkana-Karachi road.

An official working from the van told Dawn that a contract had been signed for setting up Nadra’s office near Chandka Bridge, which required approval of the head office. Hopefully, the new office would be set up within a month, he said.

“Hundreds of people regularly visit this temporary office but we can hardly issue 100 tokens a day for new CNICs, while around 200 people have to return without even getting tokens,” he said.

Intermittent power outages paired with weekly feeding of data to the centre on every Saturday and shortage of staff were key impediments to the issuance of cards, the sources said.

Even if someone wanted to get card on urgent basis after making prescribed payment he was unlikely to receive the card in time as the existing system in Larkana had no facility to communicate data on a daily basis to the centre, the sources said.

There was no shed to sit under for the people waiting in long queues under the scorching heat neither were there any separate arrangements for women, they said. People complained about delays in issuance of cards in the presence of Nadra staff.

The staff said they could hardly feed details of 100 people until the end of office time.

In case of ‘missing’ CNIC, one had to travel to the Nadra offices in Ratodero and Dokri, the sources said.

District Coordination Officer Abdul Aziz Uqaili held meetings with Nadra officials after receiving complaints and asked the district officer education for handing over three rooms to Nadra so that they could set up their temporary office there. Nadra people also visited the place but they did not shift their equipment, sources in the education office said.