TOBA TEK SINGH: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is going to close its Gojra tehsil office within next few days as a court has given verdict in the favour of Gojra municipal committee which is the owner of the building where Nadra office exists.

A notice had been displayed on the outer door of the office in which it had been written that as the matter about the building of Nadra office between MC and the Authority could not be settled and due to unavailability of a suitable building to shift to, Nadra’s Gojra office will be closed and merged into Toba DHQ Nadra office.

Nadra’s Gojra office in-charge Rana Faheem told Dawn that this office was set up in 2007 in a hall adjacent to MC library when the then TMA nazim, Asad Zaman Cheema, had offered to provide the hall without any rent. When his tenure ended, the TMA administration demanded rent of Rs5,000 a month that was paid until 2016 when the TMA administration demanded Rs20,000 as monthly rent.

When Nadra head office gave approval, he said, the municipal administration started demanding Rs25,000 and not much later, MC chairman Mian Muhammad Islam made it clear that the place would be rented against Rs100,000 a month and when Nadra expressed its inability to pay it, he filed a suit in civil court which recently asked Nadra to vacate it.

He said Nadra had decided to close the office and merge it into Toba DHQ office.

On the other hand, the MC chairman claimed that a bank had offered Rs100,000 monthly rent which Nadra was not ready to pay.

A rights activist, Advocate Umair Ahmad, says the closure of Nadra tehsil office will inconvenience a number of people who will have to travel to Toba Tek Singh city to apply for CNICs and other certificates.

He demands that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif order the MC chairman to allow the facility to keep working at the same place.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017