A few days ago, I planned to visit Nadra’s office located in Wah Cantt to get my wife’s name changed on her CNIC after marriage. To my surprise there was a long queue as usual, which I was already expecting. I had my marriage certificate with me, as I was told that it is a pre-requisite for the task. I asked the person sitting at the counter to get us registered as a new family but I was shocked when he asked me to bring a computerised marriage certificate on my next visit. I dared to ask to visit Cantonment Board for the purpose.
On visiting the Cantonment Board’s office, I was told that it will cost me Rs 570 as fee and the process will take ten days. I was in a hurry as I had to submit my wife’s CNIC somewhere. But when I revisited the Cantonment Board office after 10 days, I was surprised to see that computerised marriage certificate only had my wife’s and my name and our CNIC numbers along with our home addresses. There was no mention of witnesses and conditions of marriage. To my surprise even the dowry and the amount of ‘Huq Mehr’ was not mentioned on the computerised marriage certificate.
Here the question is why is Nadra forcing people to bring an incomplete computerised marriage certificate? Is this a new way of collecting revenue? Minting money from the poor through these means is an open challenge for policy-makers of the country and people at the helm of affairs in Nadra. Can anybody inform me the need for such an incomplete document which does not even comply with Islamic marriage law?
MUHAMMAD ARSHAD NADEEM,
Wah Cantt, December 13.