PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan has announced to form a working group to draft necessary legislation to help the province’s nomadic communities obtain computerised national identity cards (CNICs).

Mr Jan was speaking at a policy consultation on ‘access to citizenship: the challenges to itinerant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic’, which was arranged by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Mr Jan said that MPA Ayesha Bano would head the working group, which would be represented by both the opposition and treasury lawmakers.

He said that he would help bring into the provincial government’s notice the issues of itinerant workers and nomads’ access to citizenship.

On the occasion, minister for labour Shaukat Yousfzai suggested launching a door-to-door campaign to support this initiative, so that nomadic labour group could be mainstreamed.

PML-N MPA Ikhtiar Wali said they would work closely with the working group and ensure that KP’s nomadic communities were given citizenship rights.

PTI MPA Ayesha Bano, a member of the women parliamentarian caucus, also recommended issuance of a special ‘khana badosh’ or nomad card to members of such communities.

The HRCP recommended that the extensive and cumbersome application requirements for obtaining citizenship documents for nomadic communities should be reviewed.

“Nadra should carry out local door-to-door registration drives for itinerant workers and use mobile connectivity to make a simplified online process available to marginalised itinerant workers,” the commission further recommended.

HRCP also recommended that registration for women and children—in cases where families could not provide documentation for a deceased male family member—should be simplified.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021