ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has directed Nadra to take measures for facilitating citizens and open one more facilitation centre in the outskirts of the federal capital along Islamabad Expressway.

The directives were issued in view of a report prepared by a team of the federal ombudsman. The team visited the Nadra centre at Blue Area and listened to complaints of the general public.

Many issues being faced by the citizens, including crowding, availability of only one facilitation desk for more than 1,800 applicants daily, inadequate parking space, overcharging for photo copying by outside vendors and repeated visits by a person to provide required documents were detected.

Women visitors at the Nadra office highlighted a number of difficulties in issuance of the succession certificate. The team also listened to the problems of the management.

Nadra Director General Brig Talat Qayyum informed the team that after operationalising three new facilitation centres at Tarlai, Bhara Kahu and at Golra, the issue of crowding would be resolved at the centre. The team asked the Nadra authorities to let the applicants know in one go which documents were required so that they may not visit the centre again and again.

The Nadra director general said due to difficulties in identifying an intruder in a family tree, the authority had to take extra care and make cross questions to confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the intruder.

About the Rs10,000 fee for the issuance of a duplicate CNIC, the official informed the team that Nadra only charged Rs1,000 for cancellation of a duplicate CNIC in case of minor change in data, however, the applicant has to pay Rs10,000 in case of misuse of the previously issued CNIC.

However, Nadra officials failed to satisfy the ombudsman’s team on many complaints.

The ombudsman directed Nadra to establish separate facilitation centres for people who want to get speedy/fast track services by making appointments. He also directed the authority to make liaison with the CDA and the capital administration for removal of encroachments outside the Nadra centre for provision of sufficient space for parking.

He also directed to establish common interface of MIS system with verifying agencies for verification of national status on fast track.

The ombudsman directed the officials to appoint floor manager to guide the general public in availing the services of Nadra.He also directed them to make arrangements for early detection of duplicate CNIC.

The ombudsman also directed his team to carry out frequent inspection visits to the Nadra headquarters for ascertaining and removing public difficulties.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2022