KARACHI: The wilting plants lining the corridor to the National Alien Registration Authority (Nara) office on M.A. Jinnah Road seem to pre-empt the air of lassitude that greets you within. The staff looks bored and scarcely presents the picture of an organisation that should be a hive of activity in the city with the largest concentration of illegal aliens — defined as those residing illegally in a country — anywhere in Pakistan. It is believed that such individuals total about four million and trace their origins to as many as 78 countries.

Notwithstanding the staff’s lethargic demeanour, the office itself is undergoing a facelift as are the other seven zonal offices, all located in Karachi. The walls are being repainted, and newly built wooden cabinets are stacked in the corridor. Technical systems are to be upgraded, core staff increased and modus operandi revised. Nara’s revamp is a result of its merger in late May with the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

Accordingly, Nadra itself is now responsible for the registration of illegal aliens, and efforts are under way to infuse new life and professionalism into what was a barely functional, moribund organisation. “When our team went to inspect Nara’s head office, we found the staff lounging about eating paan and reading newspapers,” says one official. “What’s more, a cat had given birth to kittens in the main server that housed all their data, and the server was out of order.”

With a staff of only 95, Nara was extremely understaffed, although — according to Nadra sources — with a budget of Rs260,000,000 it was far from under-resourced. It had documented only 124,000 alien individuals in Karachi, often, allegedly, in a questionable, slipshod manner. The record had not been digitised, which meant it could not be linked with Nadra, and thus even registered aliens remained outside the database. Nadra began digitising its own records back in 2002 when it launched computerised national identity cards (CNIC). On the other hand, the record of registered Afghan refugees in the country, collected by the Afghan national registration project, is linked with Nadra.

The largest group of illegal aliens in Karachi is that of Bengalis; many of them are third generation descendants of those who stayed back in Pakistan after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. There are also a sizeable number of Sudanese, Uzbeks and Tajiks residing illegally in the city. “You can find illegal aliens all over the city, even in Defence Housing Authority,” says Nadra Director General Brigadier (retd) Zahid Hussain. “They’re employed in the fisheries, textile mills, and as domestics.”

Given their status, they are particularly vulnerable to aligning themselves with criminal elements – and providing them shelter and other assistance – in return for protection from harassment by the police and law-enforcement agencies.

Illegal aliens – mainly from Central Asia – have also been involved in a number of suicide bombings as well as some major terrorist attacks in Pakistan, such as the one on the PNS Mehran airbase in 2011 and, more recently the attack on Karachi airport.

“Every individual who is registered can be traced in case of a crime,” says Nadra director colonel (retd) Qadeer Warraich. “If you don’t register them, they won’t cease to exist, and will continue to be a burden on your economy.”

He concedes that while those bent on crime will not be volunteering for registration any time soon but if they are registered it may give them some pause, knowing that their details are on record.

According to Nadra officials, an effective media campaign is vital to improving registration of aliens. “Nara had been waiting for illegal aliens to come to them, which virtually never happened; we need to reach out to them and create incentives for them to register,” says the director.

Nadra’s success in registering Pakistanis across socio-economic classes is due in large measure to the fact that the right to vote and schemes such as the Watan card and Benazir Income Support Programme are contingent upon the possession of a CNIC. In the case of illegal aliens, officials say that incentives could include the possibility of opening a bank account on the basis of an alien card or being able to enrol their children in higher education, a common roadblock for those without CNICs.

Meanwhile, each zonal office has been provided with a van for mobile collection of data, which will become part of Nadra’s alien registration database. Field staff have visited Machhar Colony and Moosa Colony in the last few days, meeting with members of the communities to discuss the advantages of acquiring an alien card. Nadra has also recommended to the government to formulate a national level policy to cover all aspects of the issue, including the possibility of naturalisation for aliens who have been in the country for a number of years.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014