KARACHI: A day after rejecting a government committee formed to look into the issue of fake domiciles, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has taken the issue to the Sindh Assembly and filed a resolution on Tuesday demanding action against officials involved in the issuance of fake domiciles and permanent residence certificates (PRCs) in urban areas.

The resolution, signed by 12 provincial lawmakers belonging to the MQM-P, was submitted under Rule 256 of the Sindh Assembly Rules. The PA secretary received the resolution from MQM-P parliamentary party leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel, Khwaja Izharul Hasan and others.

The party also wants low-grade employment for locals in their own districts and implementation of the decades-old rural-urban quota for jobs in superior grades.

“This august house demands the government of Sindh to ensure transparent recruitment in Sindh under the Civil Servants Act of 1973 and to appoint local people of their districts on grade 1 to grade 15 jobs,” reads the draft resolution.

“This house also demands that action be taken against corrupt officers of the Sindh Public Service Commission and to implement 100 per cent implementation on rural-urban quota in appointment on jobs between grade 16 and grade 22 and a transparent inquiry be held against all past irregularities.

“This house also demands the government of Sindh to take immediate action against officers and staff involved in issuance of fake domiciles and PRCs in urban areas of Sindh,” the resolution concluded.

On Monday, Kanwar Naveed of the MQM-P had held a press conference in which he rejected a three-member government committee formed by the chief minister to probe the issuance of domiciles to non-residents of some districts.

The committee, headed by senior member Board of Revenue Qazi Shahid Pervez and comprising General Administration secretary Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo and deputy director (PRC) Nazir Ahmed Qureshi, was constituted on May 26 “to inspect and scrutinise the record of domicile certificates issued in various districts; to inquire into the complaints and reports, identify the domicile certificates issued to non-residents of the district, fix responsibility and give its clear recommendations for further action” in an initial report within seven days.

On a petition filed by MQM-P’s Khwaja Izhar through which he challenged issuance of domiciles and PRCs to non-residents and sought formulation of a policy in this regard, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had informed the Sindh High Court in March this year that it was ready to extend technical facilitation to provincial authorities about the issuance of domiciles and PRCs.

Nadra had suggested some proposals, including extending technical support for issuance of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates, which would also lead to provincial data management in relevant fields sharing with the Nadra database.

It also suggested a provincial centralised data management system for issuance of domiciles through online applications with required filtration as per the Sindh Permanent Residence Certificate Rules 1971.

The duplication of domicile to one person may also be sorted out if a domicile-related database was maintained through conversion of manually issued previous domiciles into computerised formation as per the model of “arms licence project”, Nadra said, adding that it required appropriate reforms of the Sindh Government Rules through legislation.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2020