KARACHI, Oct 25: The slow pace of the delivery of computerized identity cards by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) has perturbed people who submitted their forms more than a year ago.

Those who, failing to receive their computerized ID cards, resubmitted their forms at swift centres have also been waiting for new cards. However, sources in Nadra said the cards not delivered were of those who resubmitted their forms, and such forms were in thousands.

Nadra set up special counters more than a year ago, where a number of people submitted their forms, but they have not received the cards so far.

One applicant said he had submitted forms for his entire family in September last year, but he received only one card after three months of submission of forms and the remaining cards of the family were yet to be received.

Nadra’s swift centres, where people could get urgent cards within 10 working days and ordinary ones within 28 working days, have also failed to deliver the cards on time.

Shoaib submitted his form at the swift centre at Awami Markaz on Sept 18 for an urgent computerized card.

He was given token 363 after depositing the form with a sum of Rs160. He expected to receive the card within 10 working days, but is still waiting for the card, despite the lapse of more than a month.

“Nadra should refund the fee and close down the urgent card delivery service, when it cannot deliver the goods”, said Shoaib.

Another applicant said he had submitted 10 forms of his family on Aug 29, 2001, and so far had received only three cards. He said more than a year had lapsed and Nadra officials were not able to tell why the cards’ delivery was being delayed.

During the election people complained of discrepancies in national identity cards and electoral rolls. They said the fault either lied with the election commission or with Nadra. Many people said their names or addresses were written wrong on their identity cards. They said their permanent addresses were omitted from the cards. Some complained that their temporary addresses were not included, thus they were deprived of their right to vote.

The sources said that 370,000 people had submitted their forms and almost 190,000 of them had received the computerized cards. They said that forms of families submitted in a bunch were segregated as they were distributed for data entry to separate operators. They were further separated when sent to Islamabad, and after the process they were put in a queue.

The sources said some people, on not receiving the cards, submitted the forms again at Nadra’s swift centres; their forms were blocked and issuance of their cards went into pending.

The sources in Nadra said that 40 small swift centres called “satellites” would be established in various localities in Karachi. Nine of them would start operating in the first week of November, at Aisha Manzil, on Rashid Minhas Road near Sohrab Goth, in Shah Faisal Colony, near Civic Centre, on Britto Road in Soldier Bazaar, in Buffer Zone, in Old Golimar near Gutter Baghicha, in Frontier Colony and Baldia.

They said the interior of Sindh was also being provided with the facilities of swift centres and efforts were being made to set up swift centres in Badin, Sanghar, Dadu and Mirpurkhas. They said that in Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana, the centres were operating.