Madhu, a newly wed Hindu bride from Karachi, cannot prove she is Pakistani. Sindoor in her hair, she appeared at a Nadra office to apply for an identity card. The officer asked for a Nikahnama. She told him Hindus don’t have Nikahnamas. The official was not convinced.
Like thousands of other people from her neighborhood in Bin Qasim town, she has no identity card, despite the fact that she was born and raised here. Many of them are illiterate and do not even have birth certificates or B-forms.
“We are true Pakistanis. We have been living in Sindh since before the Afghans, the Burmese, the Bengalis and the Urdu speaking people, known as Mohajirs, had arrived,” said Maharaj Aqaldas, whose father Maharaj Jarnandas was among the first residents of the neighborhood in Karachi after he migrated from Thatta.
Being influential, he was able to send his elder son to school. The boy now works at a local mill, only because his father was able to get him a computerized national identity card (CNIC). Not all children in the locality are that lucky. Not even the three other children of Aqaldas.
“When our boys go to factories and mills seeking work, they ask them for a CNIC, which they don’t have,” he said.
“Since children are delivered mostly at home, there are no birth certificates, no B-forms and thus no CNICs,” says Krishan Bandari, a local elder. “And we have no access to a 17-grade officer to have our forms attested.”
“We are becoming a community of beggars,” says Ashi Bandari, a local activist.
Last month, the paramilitary Rangers, involved in a law-enforcement operation in the city, told all citizens of Karachi to carry a CNIC at all times, failing which they might be detained.
“The announcement has spread a wave of terror among these people,” says Sanjesh S Dhanja, president of the Pakistan Hindu Seva (PHS).
According to locals, a man named Jonjia Mukhian was picked up by police because he did not have an identity card. He was locked up until his family managed to borrow money to bribe the police, they say.
Karachi police spokesman Atiq Sheikh denied the allegation of bribery, and asserted that the police had to ask citizens to prove their identity regardless of their religious background. “Instead of seeking immunity, all citizens should ensure that they have identity cards,” he said.
“Since the people who do not have identity cards belong to the lower class, our leaders are not concerned about their problems,” says Dhanja. The few registered voters in the community support the People’s Party. A wall on the main street of Lalu Marwari Goth is inscribed with the slogan “Jiye Bilawal Bhutto Zardari”.
Bilawal’s advisor on minority affairs, Surendar Valasi, says Nadra will have to take special measures to help these people.
“If we are unable to produce marriage registration certificates, we are not entitled to get a CNIC, and our most basic rights will be denied,” one Hindu elder says. He cites a Supreme Court ruling on the matter in favor of Hindus, but says no measures have been taken to resolve the problem.
In 2012, a bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken up the issue after a newspaper columnist wrote about it. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to ensure that the draft of the proposed Hindu Marriage Registration Bill was laid before the cabinet for final approval within two weeks.
Dr Ramesh Kumar, a member of the National Assembly from the ruling PML-N, met Nadra chairman Usman Mobin last month. He says procedures would be amended in line with the Supreme Court order, but the word Nikahnama had been replaced with ‘marriage certificate’. Marriage certificates can easily be obtained from your union council, he says. Other amendments include replacing divorce with separation, and funeral with last rites. But Dr Kumar insists local Nadra officers are indifferent to the problems of the Hindu community.
A Nadra spokesman says asking for proofs of old roots is the only way to stop fake claims of citizenship. Nadra does not discriminate on the basis of religion, he says, and if any of its staff does that, formal complaints must be made.
Ignorant of the procedures and the recent changes to them in their favor, poor Hindus are concerned about their future, and the future of their children.
Naimat Khan is a Karachi based journalist.
Twitter: @NKMalazai
Like thousands of other people from her neighborhood in Bin Qasim town, she has no identity card, despite the fact that she was born and raised here. Many of them are illiterate and do not even have birth certificates or B-forms.
“We are true Pakistanis. We have been living in Sindh since before the Afghans, the Burmese, the Bengalis and the Urdu speaking people, known as Mohajirs, had arrived,” said Maharaj Aqaldas, whose father Maharaj Jarnandas was among the first residents of the neighborhood in Karachi after he migrated from Thatta.
Being influential, he was able to send his elder son to school. The boy now works at a local mill, only because his father was able to get him a computerized national identity card (CNIC). Not all children in the locality are that lucky. Not even the three other children of Aqaldas.
"Children are delivered mostly at home. There are no birth certificates"
“When our boys go to factories and mills seeking work, they ask them for a CNIC, which they don’t have,” he said.
“Since children are delivered mostly at home, there are no birth certificates, no B-forms and thus no CNICs,” says Krishan Bandari, a local elder. “And we have no access to a 17-grade officer to have our forms attested.”
“We are becoming a community of beggars,” says Ashi Bandari, a local activist.
Last month, the paramilitary Rangers, involved in a law-enforcement operation in the city, told all citizens of Karachi to carry a CNIC at all times, failing which they might be detained.
“The announcement has spread a wave of terror among these people,” says Sanjesh S Dhanja, president of the Pakistan Hindu Seva (PHS).
According to locals, a man named Jonjia Mukhian was picked up by police because he did not have an identity card. He was locked up until his family managed to borrow money to bribe the police, they say.
Karachi police spokesman Atiq Sheikh denied the allegation of bribery, and asserted that the police had to ask citizens to prove their identity regardless of their religious background. “Instead of seeking immunity, all citizens should ensure that they have identity cards,” he said.
“Since the people who do not have identity cards belong to the lower class, our leaders are not concerned about their problems,” says Dhanja. The few registered voters in the community support the People’s Party. A wall on the main street of Lalu Marwari Goth is inscribed with the slogan “Jiye Bilawal Bhutto Zardari”.
Bilawal’s advisor on minority affairs, Surendar Valasi, says Nadra will have to take special measures to help these people.
“If we are unable to produce marriage registration certificates, we are not entitled to get a CNIC, and our most basic rights will be denied,” one Hindu elder says. He cites a Supreme Court ruling on the matter in favor of Hindus, but says no measures have been taken to resolve the problem.
In 2012, a bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken up the issue after a newspaper columnist wrote about it. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to ensure that the draft of the proposed Hindu Marriage Registration Bill was laid before the cabinet for final approval within two weeks.
Dr Ramesh Kumar, a member of the National Assembly from the ruling PML-N, met Nadra chairman Usman Mobin last month. He says procedures would be amended in line with the Supreme Court order, but the word Nikahnama had been replaced with ‘marriage certificate’. Marriage certificates can easily be obtained from your union council, he says. Other amendments include replacing divorce with separation, and funeral with last rites. But Dr Kumar insists local Nadra officers are indifferent to the problems of the Hindu community.
A Nadra spokesman says asking for proofs of old roots is the only way to stop fake claims of citizenship. Nadra does not discriminate on the basis of religion, he says, and if any of its staff does that, formal complaints must be made.
Ignorant of the procedures and the recent changes to them in their favor, poor Hindus are concerned about their future, and the future of their children.
Naimat Khan is a Karachi based journalist.
Twitter: @NKMalazai