NADRA Swift Registration Center – Nazimabad

It was one of those unfortunate times (again) when one is forced to visit some government office for documentation.

Last Saturday (17th June, 2006), I visited the NADRA Swift Registration Center located in Nazimabad. I was appalled by the conditions over there. The first thing you need to do when you get there is to go to the Information counter. There was a long line at the information counter. Once you are done with that (luckily in 20-30 minutes) you will know what you exactly need to do after that

I needed to make a Child Registration Certificate, or CRC for short (this was formerly known as Form B). Let me note the requirements here, so it saves some people the hassle of the first step. The following documents are required:

• NIC of father (original)
• NIC of mother (original)
• Union Council Birth Certificate (original)

Keep 1 photocopy of each of these documents as well, just in case. I guess one of the parents has to go (in person) for the application because they do finger-printing again (God knows why). The process takes 10-15 working days, after which you should "theoretically" be able to collect the CRC.

Anyway, I got into the "token" line and was fortunate enough to receive the token in just about 1 hour. Now, the thing is, the Information & Token counters are both situated inside the NADRA unless they have the token.

So now I was the privileged one… I had the "token". In I went swiftly, past the guard, waving my token in front of him, feeling high and mighty.. he was powerless to stop me now Little did I know that my troubles were to start from here onwards. It was extremely hot and stuffy inside the office. There were lots of people waiting and lots of NADRA staff working inside on lots of heat-generating computers! The CO2 levels were crazy! You see, the interior space in the office was supposed to be air-conditioned, but there were no air-conditioners installed (or at-least none were working). There was no provision for ventilation inside. 5 minutes max and I was out of that place! I chose to wait outside.

I got my work done though and applied for the CRC successfully. I will not elaborate on the agony I faced later on (once my token was called). In summary, I would just like to say that the NADRA staff was very co-operative. Considering that they really are working in such a tough, unhealthy and in-humane environment, its amazing that they are able to keep their head! The public just has to endure a few hours of agony but the NADRA guys, they are there for a living. Credit goes to the staff operating the NADRA office.

Having said that the fault lies with the current NADRA management. If they cannot install air-conditioning, they could at-least make some provision for ventilation for the staff and the general public suffering over there!