Karachi's underprivileged residents unable to get national identity cards

KARACHI: From morning till late in the night, residents of Orangi Town sit outside the office of NADRA, waiting to at least submit their documents for an identity card. But weeks and months pass, they continue to wait.

"I have been coming here for the past four days, but my turn has not been called out," an older adult man tells Geo News. "Brokers take money from people and get their CNICs made for them, while we keep sitting on a sheet we bring from home, waiting for our number to be called out."

Among these people are mostly daily wage earners, rickshaw drivers and others from low-income backgrounds. They leave their jobs to wait outside the National Database and Registration Authority office in Orangi Town, only to be sent back without their working being done.

A rickshaw driver says he leaves home at 5:30AM to find customers – it is difficult for him to keep standing outside the office. "It is 8PM and I have not eaten yet," he tells Geo News.

There are women who have to leave their children alone at home at midnight to go and wait outside the office in the hope that their turn would be called out as soon as the office opens. But all in vain.

"They take the papers [documents] from us and send us outside [without processing the work], a woman says.  

Another man was of the view that arrangements should at least be for women who sit outside the office till late after sundown.

Locals complain that even elected representatives have not helped them get a computerised national identity card made.

This leaves the residents of Orangi Town in a heap of difficulties that arise when they do not have a CNIC to support their documents.

The unavailability of a CNIC does not only leave these people with obstacles in the way of getting a job, they also get stuck when the police carry out search operations in their area. Since they do not have a CNIC to prove the legality of their residence in the area, they are often caught in investigations held after search operations are carried out to nab suspects.

However, amid all this, there are also people who do not have to step out of their comfortable confines to struggle for a requirement as essential as a CNIC. This is because these "privileged" people can pay money to agents and get their CNICs delivered to their offices and houses.