PESHAWAR, July 10: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has set up 33 swift centres in the province and adjoining tribal area.

Speaking at the Rabita programme of Radio Pakistan on Thursday, Nadra’s regional chief Brig Mohammad Anwar Khan said the authority was also trying to establish 12 more swift centres to speed up the issuance of computerized national identity cards (CNICs) before the old NICs expire by December 31, 2003.

“By the grace of Allah, we have overcome our backlog and are now processing new applications. We don’t see much problems in issuing the new CNICs before the old ones expire.”

The Nadra regional chief said that he had written to his head office to sanction another 12 such centres to share the workload and speed up the process of issuance of new NICs.

Nadra has announced the old NIC would expire and cease to be a legal document after the expiry of the deadline after which only the CNIC would be acceptable in all legal and official matters. “I hope the people realize the importance of the matter and apply for new identity cards,” he said.

Mr Khan was confident that Nadra could meet the task in the given time. “We have already issued cards to 55 per cent of the eligible population and are confident that we can cope with the remaining 45 per cent applicants by the stipulated deadline.”

He acknowledged that there had been problems in processing and distribution of new identity cards. “But we have overcome those problems,” he said, while referring to the setting up of the swift centres where applicants could get their photographs taken and forms filled out by Nadra staff.

“The same centres would also serve as collection and distribution points for the new identity cards,” he maintained.

“We experimented with several distribution systems and none worked. This was a big problem. But now we have decided to use swift centres for the purpose,” he said and added that woman staff had been deputed at those centres to facilitate women applicants keeping in view the culture of the NWFP and the tribal areas.

He said that by virtue of clearing up the backlog, Nadra was now able to narrow down the time and issue urgent CNICs in ten days and ordinary identity cards in four weeks time.

Responding to a question, Mr Khan said that those who had not received their CNICs in due time could either approach or call swift centres or call directly Nadra’s regional office for help and assistance.

He said that Form ‘B’ were available at swift centres where those could be filled out for applicants by Nadra’s staff. He informed that the staff was there to correct any mistake in the new identity cards.

Later, he told reporters that Nadra had detected over 20,000 fake applications including those of Afghan refugees and had taken action against 1,500 people including 500 officers and councillors for wrong attestations.

He said that criminal cases had also been lodged against erring people. “We are making sure that only bona fide Pakistani citizens get the new identity cards.”