ISLAMABAD: Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that a new standard operating procedure (SOP) had been devised that would only let registered voters from Islamabad obtain domiciles in the capital.
He said anyone who is not on the voter list, or in the case of minors whose parents are not on the voter list, will be considered an ‘alien’.
Mr Shafqaat told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior that the new SOP was developed after a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) inquiry found that some individuals had tampered with electricity bills and submitted them to obtain Islamabad domiciles.
The meeting was chaired by MNA Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz at National Database and Registration Authority headquarters.
NAB inquiry had proven that people submitted tampered-with electricity bills to obtain domiciles, DC says
The committee was considering an Oct 1, 2019, calling attention notice by PTI MNA Ali Nawaz Awan about problems Islamabad residents face in obtaining domiciles.
Mr Awan had alleged that under the previous government, while Akram Durrani was the minister for housing, jobs were advertised in the Public Works Department and people were brought from Bannu overnight whose Islamabad domiciles were made and they were appointed to these positions.
He said NAB took up this issue and the allegation was proven to be true.
Mr Awan said that he took this issue up with the parliamentary committee on Cabinet Secretariat, which recommended that Islamabad jobs be given to local residents.
“It is unfortunate that people from other areas of the country are appointed in Islamabad and residents of Islamabad are even not allowed to get jobs in adjacent cities. Moreover only residents of federal capital should get the domiciles from Islamabad,” he said.
Mr Shafqaat told Dawn later that the NAB inquiry had proven that people submitted tampered-with electricity bills to obtain domiciles.
“As we issue domiciles in hours, it becomes impossible to verify if electricity bills are genuine or tampered-with. A large number of people come to us with temporary Islamabad addresses on their CNICs. As addresses on CNICs can be changed anytime, it has been decided that only the voter list would be considered for the issuance of domiciles,” he said.
He said this would make it impossible for people who are not from Islamabad to obtain domiciles in the capital.
People with two different addresses on their CNICs would also need a no-objection certificate from the deputy commissioner of their hometown stating that they do not have a domicile there and may be issued an Islamabad domicile.
“Unfortunately a large number of people have more than one domicile and they have deprived genuine residents of the federal capital of their due rights,” he said.
Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2020