Paperwork: 225 thousand re-verification forms have been issued so far. PHOTO: FILE
Once this deadline is over, all manual arms forms will be cancelled and a crackdown will begin against defaulters. The drive to re-verify all arms licences in the province was started by the home department in October but the vigour seems to have died down as the officials, working at the offices of the deputy commissioners, appear more interested in greasing palms, according to people who queued up to verify their licences.
The arms licences are being updated at special counters at deputy commissioners’ office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). Long queues are a regular site at these counters and several people have complained of a shortage of verification forms.
“This is my second visit to the NADRA office to get the verification forms,” pointed out Abdul Malik, a resident of Thorhi Bijar in Qamber-Shahdadkot district. “The same forms are being sold for Rs1,000 each at a nearby photocopier but the officials are reluctant to give them to us for free, even though they are supposed to.”
Malik was not the only disappointed man in the queue. Another complained that he left important work to come stand in line. “This is the harvest season of paddy crop and we left our work half way to re-verify arms licences,” complained Nabi Bux Channa, a local landlord, who had to leave empty-handed when he failed to get the forms even after a few hours. “The peons and clerks at the deputy commissioner office are selling these forms illegally,” he added.
Similar incidents were also reported in Sukkur, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Khairpur and Benazirabad. In Thatta, a few disgruntled residents blocked National Highway to protest the apathy of government officials. “They [officials] have passed on the forms to the lower staff who are selling these forms to mint some money,” one of the protesters claimed.
The deputy commissioners (DC) have absolved themselves of any responsibility and insisted that NADRA is looking after the entire process. “We work as facilitators while NADRA officials issue the forms and computerise the licences,” Qamber-Shahdadkot DC Asad Abro told The Express Tribune. “Our role is confined to verifying the licences and looking after police reports.”
Abro admitted they are short on forms but, he explained, it is because more and more people have turned up in the days leading up to the deadline. “A few people would have genuine complaints but we are trying to streamline the system,” he added.
Meanwhile, NADRA Sindh director-general Zahid Hussain said it was not their responsibility to issue these forms as it is the job of the DC office. “People can get the forms free-of-charge by showing their indentify cards,” he explained. Once a NADRA official verifies that the card is genuine, they will transfer the person to the relevant DC to verify the licence. After that, the licence holders will have to pay a challan of Rs1,000.
“NADRA has nothing to do with anything else. We just register the data in the system and computerise the licences,” he said.
The home department also confirmed they are short on forms and have ordered more prints. “Each form has a unique serial number to track every arms licence, therefore, photocopied forms are not acceptable,” said the department’s additional chief secretary, Mumtaz Ali Shah.
They have issued around 225,000 forms so far. “Earlier, we had established two counters at each DC office but their number has been doubled now,” he said. “This means every DC office will have four NADRA counters to deal with the re-verification of the arms licences,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2013.
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