Ethnic bias seen in blocked CNICs

ISLAMABAD: During the question hour in the National Assembly, ethnic discrimination emerged as a major factor in terms of blocked Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) while Pushto language topped the list of blocked CNIC cases.

According to data submitted in the National Assembly by the federal ministry of interior in response to a question raised by a lawmaker, Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) in the National Assembly, a total of 344,597 CNICs had been blocked, mainly in ‘suspect’, ‘confirmed alien’ and ‘under verification’ categories.

Under these categories, as many as 217,007 CNICs were blocked, mainly of people of Pashtun ethnic origins. Pushto led the incidence of blocked CNICs with 63 per cent of the total.

The reply submitted by the interior ministry mentioned as many as 10 languages with blocked CNICs.

Urdu stood at number two in this list with a total of 41,456 blocked CNICs.

As many as 23,538 CNICs were stated to be blocked under ‘miscellaneous’ category of languages.

Punjabi was positioned fourth in the list with 29,510 blocked CNICs.

Balochi language stood at fifth position in connection with the number of blocked CNICs.

Sindhi was placed at the sixth position with 7,037 blocked CNICs, while Balti, with 5,297 blocked CNICs, remained at seventh position.

A total of 4,995 CNICs were blocked of people who spoke Seraiki language, mainly spoken in southern Punjab at eighth position.

Brahui as a language remained at the ninth position with 3,838 blocked CNICs and Hindko took the last position in terms of blocked CNICs, the written reply stated.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa also led the province-wise breakdown of blocked CNICs with at least 106,020 blocked cards followed by Sindh with 85,923 blocked CNICs.

Punjab, the largest province of the country in terms of population, trailed Sindh at third position in terms of blocked CNICs with 61,304 such cases.

Balochistan, despite having lowest population in the country, stood at fourth in the list with 60,404 blocked CNICs and FATA with 12,031 cases of blocked CNICs stood at fifth in line.

Islamabad, the federal capital territory, was sixth in the row with 9,229 blocked CNICs and 6,952 CNICs were blocked of persons residing abroad at seventh position.

Azad Kashmir stood at eighth position of blocked CNICs with 2,570 cases and Gilgit-Baltistan with just 160 blocked CNIC cases stood at ninth position, the lowest number of blocked CNICs.

Source: Dawn