Blocked CNIC: Failing to submit report, NADRA chief summoned

Authority failed to comply with court order to provide report on the case.

ISLAMABAD:

NADRA’s failure to issue a CNIC to a man earned its chairperson a summon from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday.

IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman directed Ali Arshad Hakeem to appear in person before the court on July 5 and explain why a report on the non-issuance of petitioner Aqib Khan’s CNIC had not been submitted to the court.

Khan, originally from South Waziristan but settled in Rawalpindi for many years, had filed a petition challenging the blockage of his Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) in 2010.

During the course of the hearing, NADRA failed to submit its report and no representative appeared on the authority’s behalf.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel Advocate Malik Tahir Mahmood pleaded before the court that in 2005, NADRA had issued a CNIC to his client after verifying all his documents. However, in November 2010 his client came to know that NADRA had blocked his CNIC.

“My client repeatedly approached NADRA but was ignored,” Mahmood told the court.

He informed the court that in December 2010, Khan moved the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, which gave a verdict in his favour.

He claimed that on December 13, 2010, his client appeared before the NADRA’s legal manager along with an application, but even then he was not issued a CNIC.

He said that his client has never been involved in any criminal activities and the denial of a CNIC to him is causing him many problems that are also adversely affecting his business.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2012.