CHARIKAR (SW): Civil activists and a number of provincial council members in northern Parwan province have expressed opposition towards issuing “Tazkira”, the national identity cards to nomads.
Mohammad Asim Asim, Parwan’s governor, has sent an official letter to the Parwan Population Registration Department asking him it to issue the cards to some 83 residents of Qala-e-Nasro in Baghram district. A number of civil society activists gathered at Parwan provincial council on Tuesday to show their opposition to such move.
Wahid Kohistani, an official at the Parwan Population Registration Department, who was speaking at the session, said that there has been immense pressure on the department to distribute the ID cards to the nomads in this province.
He said that these individuals, who have been issued with the cards are neither ‘true nomads’ nor have the family background registered at the department to make them eligible for the ID cards.
The participants at the gathering on Tuesday said that that they were against the distribution of the cards to those who claim to be nomads, and that they would not allow anyone to issue the cards to nomads.
They said that the nomads have never settled in Parwan, and now some individuals want to disrupt the security of the province using the name of nomads.
Haroon Motaref, one of the participants, urged for forming an institution consisted of the youth to show effective reactions to such issues. Abdul Zahir Salangi, a member at Parwan provincial council, said that distributing ID cards to the nomads in the province has been underway for 10 years now.
He said that the government has always sent official letter on distributing ID cards to the nomads in Parwan but the letters have always been rejected by the local government, provincial council and residents in the province.
At the end of the session, it was decided that the governor in Parwan should revise his decision on issuing ID cards to the nomads or otherwise the civil activists would stage demonstrations.
ENDS
