Woman who claims to be just 1.75-foot tall woman has moved a court against the National Data Registration Authority (Nadra) for not providing her with a CNIC.
According to Burewala resident 36-year-old Hasina Bibi, she has been visiting the NADRA offices weekly for the past five years but has been denied a CNIC. “I have been going to the office every week for five years and every time they raise some objection. They just don’t want to issue me a card because of my short stature,” she told The Express Tribune.
Hasina told reporters that NADRA officials had told her they could not issue her a card because her finger prints were too small. “They said that it was hard to identify my prints and that was why I was ineligible for an ID card,” she said, adding “Does that mean that I shouldn’t be recognised as a Pakistani citizen because I am small?”
In her application, Hasina, stated that a NADRA official had told her that she was wasting her time trying to get a CNIC card. “He told me ‘What do you need the card for it’s not like you will be working’. He doesn’t work here anymore but that is what they all think,” she told reporters.
Hasina’s mother Sachal Mai said that obtaining a CNIC was her daughter’s right. “My daughter suffers from a medical condition but her birth certificate confirms that she is 34 years old. She cannot be denied an ID card just because she is short and has small hands,” she said.
Hasina and Sachal Mai told reporters that they had been visiting NADRA offices in several districts for several years but nothing had happened. “We have been to several districts to different districts hoping that someone would help us at a CNIC issuing office but no one has.
They insist that they cannot change the ‘system’,” Sachal Mai said. “In five years they haven’t been able to process my case. They are implying that if one is different one cannot be recognized as a citizen of this country,” Hasina said.
On Saturday, Hasina and her mother filed a case against the local NADRA office demanding that she be provided a CNIC and that the officials be ordered to speed up the matter.
NADRA official Mujahid Ameen said that Hasina had not been refused a card. “We never refused her an ID card. Her card has been on hold because her prints cannot be identified. Our system doesn’t recognise her finger prints. That is why we haven’t been able to issue the card,” he said.
Ameen said that the software used by NADRA kept stating that the bearer needed to be 18. “Her hands are so small that it rejects the prints believing her to be a child,” he said.
“This is a ridiculous excuse. Are they trying to say that in five years they have been unable to address a glitch and enter my daughter’s information to issue her a CNIC?” Sachal Mai said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2012.
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Good setup by citizen.