LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has given a ‘unique’ order to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to provide a new identity to an 18-year-old foster girl by giving a fake name to her unknown father and release an identity card to her.
Justice Muhammad Shan Gul of the Lahore High Court on Friday wrote down a 9-page detailed judgement on Zarmeen Abid’s petition.
Zarmeen who does not know who is her biological father has submitted a petition to the LHC challenging NADRA’s decision to block her identity card.
According to Justice Gul, NADRA had committed a blatant and clear violation of the Constitution by blocking the identity card of an adopted girl. He remarked that Nadra without hearing the stance of a hapless girl who does not know about her real father deprived her of her national identity card.
“Without providing the right to defence to an individual, and blocking his/her identity card is tantamount to the negation of his/her identity,” the verdict said.
The ID card blockage means that the freedom of a citizen has been restricted and he has been deprived of the necessities of life.
The court observed that the position of an 18-year-old girl sans identity was similar to a defenseless and weak pigeon among a clutter of cats. It’s the responsibility of states at the international level to register their citizens in order to thwart the forced sex trade, labour and human trafficking.
To have a legal identity is the foremost constitutional right of every citizen and it is attached to human dignity. It is the responsibility of a state to restrict others who interfere in giving identity to its citizens, the verdict said.
Pakistan has endorsed an international accord agreeing to abolish discriminatory treatment to women. The state entities must ensure the protection of women rights, the court said.
The petitioner told the court that she was adopted by Mrs Razsanga and she did not know about her real father nor did her foster mother. She said in the column of father’s name on her B Form, her foster mother’s ex-husband Abid-ul-Rehman’s name was written. Then her foster mother’s second husband Nasir Ahmad approached NADRA and requested it to write down his name in the column of petitioner’s father name.
Now Mr Nasir has blocked her NADRA identity card, the petitioner informed the court.
