Zubair Qureshi
Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has directed the National Database And Registration Authority to establish one more Facilitation Centre in the outskirts of the Islamabad Capital Territory along Islamabad Expressway.
He also directed the authority to establish separate Facilitation Centers for people who want to get speedy/fast track services by appointments.
He also directed NADRA to make liaison with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the ICT Administration for removal of encroachments outside the NADRA Centre for provision of sufficient space for parking.
The FO has also directed establishment of a common interface of the MIS system with verifying Agencies for verification of national status on fast track. The Ombudsman has further directed to appoint Floor Manager to guide the general public in availing the services of NADRA.
The Ombudsman also directed NADRA to make arrangements for early detection of Duplicate CNIC so that duplicate fee of Rs10,000 may not be charged on account of holding duplicate CNIC while processing such applications.
The Federal Ombudsman while taking notice of the complaints against the NADRA had constituted a team of senior officers comprising Muhammad Humair Kareem, Additional Secretary WMS, Muhammad Saqib Khan, Consultant/Registrar and Adnan Ahmad, Investigation Officer to visit NADRA and submit report.
The committee submitted its report after visiting NADRA Centre Blue Area Islamabad and listening to the complaints of general public, witnessing the entire process of issuing CNICs/Succession Certificate and holding meeting with the management of NADRA.
The team observed and noted a number of complaints of general public including overcrowding of visitors, availability of only one facilitation desk for more than 1800 visitors daily, inadequate parking space, overcharging of photo copying by the outside vendor, repeated visits by a person to provide required documents.
The women visitors highlighted a number of difficulties in issuance of Succession Certificate. The team also listened to the problems of the management. The Director General NADRA Brig. Talat Qayyum informed that after operationalizing three new Facilitation Centers at Tarlai, Bara Kahu and at Golra, the issue of overcrowding would be resolved. The team asked the NADRA authorities to assist the applicants clearly about all the required documents so that they may not visit time and again about the purpose.
DG NADRA informed about the difficulties in identifying an intruder in a family tree for which they have to take extra care and make cross questions to confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the intruder. The team also inquired for charging Rs.10,000/- for duplicate CNIC. In turn, he informed that NADRA only charges Rs.1000/- for cancellation of duplicate CNIC in case of minor change in data, however, the applicant has to pay Rs.10,000/- in case of misuse of the previously issued CNIC. The team also inquired regarding complaints for use of thumb impression for issuance of a number of mobile Sims through illegal ways. They informed that they have a biometric facility and facial detection system which automatically detects thumb impressions. However, they failed to satisfy the team on these complaints.
The Ombudsman also directed his team to carry out frequent inspection visits of NADRA headquarters for ascertaining and removing public difficulties.
The Ombudsman expressed satisfaction over the efforts of the management of NADRA for resolving the immediate issues indicated by the inspection team.
