Threats of arson: Jamaat-e-Islami issues ultimatum over blocked CNICs

JI Peshawar amir says if authorities fail to address the issue it would not be able to control its workers

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami’s Khyber-Pakhtunkwa chapter has given the National Database and Registration Authority a 30-day ultimatum over the issue of blocked CNICs, warning that it would set ablaze NADRA’s offices in the province if the authority failed to provide relief to the people.

Under the verification process begun by the federal government, the identity cards of over 300,000 people have been blocked in K-P.

Addressing a gathering protesting against the NADRA administration, JI Peshawar Amir Sabir Hussain Awan said that if the authority failed to address the issue within a month the party leadership would not be able to control its workers and the responsibility would lie with NADRA.

Voicing similar opinions, the party’s K-P emir Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that over 0.3 million CNICs were blocked across K-P out of which 70,000 were from Peshawar.



He said that the issue had been brought to the notice of the concerned departments and the interior minister but to no avail.

“People have not been able to apply for Umrah and Hajj because of their blocked CNICs,” he said. NADRA officials, according to him, are now demanding bribes in exchange for resolving the issue.

He lamented that NADRA was denying people of K-P their right of being citizens of the country. “NADRA officials have blocked CNICs of retired officials too who are now facing difficulty drawing pensions”.

Nazar Khan, a resident of Mohmand Agency, told The Express Tribune that his CNIC has been blocked for over a year without any reason.

“I approached NADRA to renew my CNIC, but they told me my card had been blocked,” he said adding that he has been frequently visiting the NADRA office since then but all in vain.

Another Peshawar resident, Waris Khan, said that xhis CNIC had been blocked for over two years now but the authorities had done nothing about it.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2016.