I RECENTLY visited the mega centre of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) at Siemens Chowrangi in Karachi to get CNIC for my daughter. It is a facility which remains functional 24 hours, where people expect quick, if not instant, service with care and dignity.

I visited the centre right after the early morning prayers, but even then found more than a couple of hundred people before me in the queue. There were separate queues for men and women, but there was no arr-angement for the elderly.

Surprisingly, the woman guard kept checking documents even though she should have no business checking people’s documents, and kept repeating the process after every 10-15 minutes, removing people from the queue at will, sending them to the end of the line without any reason.

Moreover, the sitting area outside was utterly horrible, with broken chairs having concrete blocks underneath. There were dogs roaming around everywhere and sleeping under the seats, in the pathways and even in the middle of the security gate, harassing people.

The place was full of filth and dust. People were being sent inside the office in batches of 10-15. It took my child three hours to get in. They did not allow me to accompany her to provide any assistance. I waited for about two more hours before I somehow managed to get in.

It was worse than what was going on outside. There was no clean water to drink and washrooms were unbelievably filthy. Besides, the seating arrangement was utterly pathetic. Half of the counters were either not working, or the officials were busy with some other activity.

Ironically, it looked more like a fish market than a Nadra centre. No one from the staff had an iota of respect or care towards the people. Random token nu-

mbers kept appearing/disappearing on the counters. Display screens were not working, and one had to run around to see where one’s token number might randomly appear.

Once we finally reached the relevant counter, the staff present there was very rude without any reason or provocation. We were sent from counter to counter and no one seemed to know what to do. We had to visit four different counters to get the data entered and verified, followed by an interview as well as scanning of the documents.

As such, the equipment they were using was either faulty or outdated. The picture taken was blurred, finger scanning was horrible, and we needed to repeat the process multiple times after cleaning the scanner repeatedly.

Unfortunately, the people present there were in a limbo as the staff had so many objections against almost everyone’s documents, and no one was there to guide them. I have visited this centre a few times, and it seems that the place is getting worse with each passing day.

Nisar Ahmed Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2024