The Supreme Court (SC) Friday directed National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to stop issuing illegal Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) in Bahria Town and its surroundings. Bahria Town is owned by land developer Malik Riaz.
Riaz is accused of disturbing the demographic shape of National Assembly' Constituency 52 as Bahria Town's 20,000 employees from all over the country have been allegedly asked by him to change temporary address on CNICs by getting the cards from Bahria Town Rawalpindi Nadra office. However, the SC asked Nadra to shift its office from Bahria Town and its allied vicinity 'Swan' and provide facility to general public in the area.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing a suo motu regarding issuance of CNICs with changing temporary address of 20,000 employees of Bahria Town in National Assembly 52 Rawalpindi constituency.
It is worth mentioning that earlier Punjab Police registered an FIR and raided the Nadra office Bahria Town Rawalpindi and detained some woman workers who were on duty under the Nadra directions. During the course of hearing, a resident of NA-52, Rashid Hashmi, told the bench that under immense pressure from Bahria Town administration a total of 20,000 of its employees and their dependants were compelled to change their temporary address on the CNIC by mentioning present residence in Bahria Town, which is situated in NA Constituency 52.
According to Hashmi, the Nadra has issued as many as 4,133 CNICs in the last three months in the vicinity having temporary residential address of Bahria Town Rawalpindi. He added that other 808 CNICs were issued at a single address of the Bahria Town. Hashmi alleged that Malik Riaz directed 20,000 Bahria Town employees to convert their temporary address on CNICs.
In his remarks, the CJP questioned the arrest of woman workers at Nadra Centre in Bahria Town, adding that those women were only following their seniors' orders in the issuance of CNICs. While representing NADRA, Afnan Kuni and Raza Kazim contended that NADRA was neither favouring nor delivering for a particular group in the society. Hashmi, however, pleaded that there were some specific persons' signatures as attestation authority could be witnessed in the forms which were submitted to Nadra Bahria Town Office.
On the occasion, Nadra Chief Administrative Officer Tahir Ikram told the bench that matter of issuing CNICs to 20000 people was wrongly projected because Nadra received only two thousand applications from NA 52 constituency in Bahria Town. The CJP observed that no one should be influenced, adding that the institutions were meant to deliver under the Constitution. The bench ordered Nadra to shift its special office in Bahria Town and its allied vicinity Swan and asked the concerned authorities to issue CNICs without discrimination from other localities of the twin cities. The court adjourned the hearing for three weeks.
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