KARACHI, Feb 18: The Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider (retd), has said “swift offices” will be set up at various places in Karachi, including one at its regional headquarters, to accelerate the process of registration of aliens living in the city.

“There are roughly, as is being guessed, two million immigrants in Karachi alone, and we have to take effective measures for their registration”, he said in an interview with APP during a visit to the regional office of the National Authority for the Registration Aliens (NARA) here on Monday.

He pointed out that NARA has established itself since January 1, 2002 and started registration of aliens who includes Bengalis of Bangladesh origin as well as Afghanis.

The minister said the main objective is to develop their database as no one exactly knows about the number of immigrants living here.

After registration, he said, they will be issued cards which would save them from police highhandedness. The database will also let us know as to in which fields these immigrants are working, whether in textile, fisheries, housemaids or servants or cooks.

Mr Haider said this database will also establish the number of immigrants according to their countries of origin.

He said to prepare an authentic credible database, NGOs are also helping us.

He said that those who have obtained national identity card but would not be able to prove that they have not come recently and that cards are not fake, they would be exempted from registration.

Answering a question, he said those who are in jobs would continue to remain in employment and would be issued work permit against payment of a fee of Rs2,500.

When he was told that certain immigrants have been elected in the local bodies elections, the minister said they will have to prove their citizenship.

He pointed out that only those who came to Pakistan till 1971 and whose children were born here are Pakistanis and those coming here thereafter or non-Pakistanis who will be first registered and issued cards and then we will proceed further.

When asked as to the future of Afghanis living in tented Afghan village on Super Highway, the minister pointed out that a new phase of reconstruction of Afghanistan is about to start and lot of aid is reaching there, so it would be better in their interest to go back as they have to return for they have the refugee status here.

He said we would motivate them that with improvement in weather conditions, which remains cold in Afghanistan till March, to move to new camps set up which are within 8 km inside the Pakistan-Afghan border. He said on reaching there they will start getting free ration from the UN.

And when conditions improves in late March and April, it would be in their interest to go to their country and take advantage of new economic opportunities which are going to open up there.

He said this process will be carried out in two phases. First, those who are in camps and do not have an employment will be provided transport. Those who wish to go to Afghanistan could go their directly and those who do not, would be taken to newly established camps.

Replying to a question, Mr Haider said those who are earning their livelihood and who are in different businesses like hotel, etc, would naturally would not like to go until they have an alternative business in Afghanistan.

Therefore, in the first phase our strategy will be that those immigrants who are without any job or employment, would be motivated and moved first to new camps where they will start getting free ration. Once they will go there, they will have the chances of getting back to their country.

He said those who are working here would get temporary work permit, but ultimately all will have to return. He said this will be done gradually so that they could be absorbed in their country’s economy.

The minister said that if the required staff is provided and computers given, it would take about three years to register the aliens.

On the occasion the Director-General of NARA, Mohammed Saleem Khan, informed that some 0.2 million cards will be issued in 3 years.

The minister said that once the task of registration is completed, the issuance of cards will be no problem as the Fauji Foundation has the capacity to produce 100,000 cards a day. Similarly, arrangements for production of cards could also be made with the Security Printing Corporation.

Asked as to when the issuance of cards after registration of immigrants will start, the minister said that there is a minor problem - that whether NADRA or NARA who will issue the card and this problem will be resolved by him on return to Islamabad.

He informed that NARA is in touch with the Printing Corporation which would produce inexpensive cards for the Authority and hopefully this local arrangement will be finalized by NARA.

Answering a question, Mr Haider said that a NARA office has first been established in Karachi because it wanted to start with the registration of non-Afghanis who are in greater concentration here. He said although NARA has work from Karachi, but its Board of Directors do have members from all the provinces.

“If need be and the work here is brought under control, care of other provinces would then also be taken.”

He pointed out that we had kept Afghan refugees in low priority but it may take few years for them to return to their country. They are already here for the last 22 years.

Replying a question, the minister said that new NADRA NICs will be for 10 years, whereafter new card will be issued because in 10 years the very face of the person undergoes changes.

He said that this year NADRA will set up 70 centres throughout the country and 200 by December next year.

He said that he has asked NARA to also set up their offices near concentrations of immigrants from where the data can be transmitted electronically here.

He said that hopefully by next year all work relating to cards as well as passport will be done electronically.

The minister said he has given mandate to passport people also to reorganize themselves on modern lines.

Asked as to what sort of mandate has been given to passport offices, Mr Haider pointed out that there is a lot of congestion in these offices. They are not organized, they do not have computers and have no electronically working facility.

He said they have been told to open passport office like the NADRA and NARA offices and start their operations electronically.

He said soon the government is going to tender out the machine readable passports.

He said that data for this purpose will be sent to Islamabad through NARA-like swift offices where passports will be prepared under one roof as a secured document. He said this would help check issuance of fake passports.

Replying to a question as to when this process will be functional, Mr Haider said that in Karachi automatic border-control system has been introduced and in Islamabad it is starting from Feb 25 and he will try to speed it up.

He said the authorities say that it will take about 18 months or so, but personally he would like it to be done in about 8-9 months. —APP