For NADRA’s database, two’s a crowd

Officials believe Waseem already has an ID card.

HYDERABAD: Two brothers have the National Database and Registration officials — and their computers, it seems — confused. Rameez, 23, had his computerised national identification card (CNIC) successfully made without any complications. But his younger brother, 19-year-old Waseem, cannot get one because Nadra officials believe he already has one.

Following standard procedure, Waseem submitted his documents and photographs on September 11, 2009 after which Nadra staff gave him a date to collect his CNIC. His form number is LT00176457. When he went back, however, the staff refused to issue him a card, saying he already had an ID card.

On his complaint to Nadra, the two brothers were called in, their photographs were taken and their comments were filed. But Waseem still does not have a card.

Nadra’s Hyderabad head office manager Irfan Shah said the complaint was forwarded to the head office.

Waseem wants to join the army but without the ID card, he cannot. “I have been trying to sit the Inter-Services Selection Board (ISSB) exam for the last two years,” he said. “I don’t think it will happen again this year.”

His friend, Wajahat Ali, says it is easy to figure out Waseem and Rameez are two brothers by their fingerprints. “We live in the digital age. But Nadra doesn’t, it seems.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2011.