News Details

14/04/2017

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has termed the blockage of National Identity Cards of countless of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has termed the blockage of National Identity Cards of countless of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on basis of their tribes and ethnicity as highly discriminatory attitude on the part of federal government. He asked for reviewing such an inimical attitude forthwith, unblocking the genuine NICs in the earliest and clarifying the situation in next couple of days. Chief Minister showed the dismay and concern of provincial government on the issue during meeting with DG NADRA Gohar Ahmad Khan who called on him at Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar on Thursday. Gohar Khan however told that federal government realized sensitivity of the issue wherein certain concrete steps were being taken to unblock many NICs whereas system was also being evolved about verification process and other public complaints on blocked NICs. However, he explained that NADRA was facing shortage of work force in the verification process. The Chief Minister while expressing un-satisfaction over this explanation, directed to summon joint meeting of the NADRA as well as the federal and provincial intelligence and security agencies including Home, Revenue, Police and Pak Army to be held within a fortnight at Peshawar. He made clear that he would himself attend this meeting to see the development and adopt the future strategy of provincial government in light of it. He lamented that miseries of the poor people of that province were multiplied with blocking of their NICs which otherwise played front role in war against terrorism and this situation was quite unbearable for his government. Pervez Khattak also expressed his resentment that NIC of the one of five brothers in a family was blocked and such a situation was not faced by the people or families of a particular area but happened in every district and even to people at village and town level. He said that this situation not only increased in anxiety of the masses but also put a question mark on performance of the concerned federal entities. Chief Minister while explaining the poor state of affairs also gave example of people of his own constituency and said that many individuals of Mohallah Suleman Khel in his area have been declared as Afghans and their NICs blocked by NADRA though he personally knew that they were patriotic Pakistanis and living there for centuries. Pervez Khattak said that the federal government should have a transparent system for permanent solution of the issue. The system should also have time lines for the delivery of services to the citizens; and upon the violation, the concerned officers should be punished and fined, he added. He underlined awareness campaign in cities and village level in order to keep the masses aware of their faults and mistakes in this regard and enable them to rectify it. He hoped that NADRA will take this issue seriously and show clear progress within two weeks and bring a transparent policy and strategy to satisfy the citizens regarding their citizenship. <><><><><><><>