KARACHI: If one aspires to obtain a domicile/PRC in any district of the metropolis, he/she must not worry as it has become very easy for all to apply and get the domicile/PRC. The thing he/she is supposed to do is to just grease the palms of the staff at Deputy Commissioner’s Office with at least Rs 1,600.
The office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) East Asif Jah has become the hub of corruption as the lower staff and agents at the office are openly demanding Rs 1,600 and above for a domicile/PRC, according to a detailed visit conducted by Daily Times.
In the past, Karachiites used to get domiciles/PRCs on merit. However, the trend of bribery was allegedly introduced by former deputy commissioner east Samiullah Siddiqui who launched a scheme of Rs 300 per signature either on a domicile or a PRC, insiders say.
The domicile is the requirement for a student when he/she wishes to get admission to a college with a PRC form C meant for education purposes. The PRC form D is meant for job purposes.
According to an estimate, more than 700 domiciles/PRCs are being signed on a regular basis and the Additional Deputy Commissioner, who is nominated by Deputy Commissioner Asif Jah, is receiving Rs 300 per signature. This means one has to pay Rs 900 for a domicile as well as a PRC, say the insiders.
Ironically, if a person goes through the routine process, he has to wait for at least 15 to 20 days and later he is informed that his file lacks many documents, hence his domicile/PRC is denied. The insiders say that submission of cases starts at 10am and continues until 12noon. However, just five to ten files are received and then the window is closed.
According to the sources, a group of four persons, including clerk Muhammad Shahid and private typists Asim and Khurram, are authorised to bring all the files and folders of the candidates before the ADC for signatures with the total amount of these files. And, the amount, which used to be handed over to the Deputy Commissioner by the DC East staff, has increased to more than Rs 500,000 daily.
The most interesting thing to be noted is that deputy commissioner East Asif Jah is allocated a huge land for the private persons/oath commissioner outside the DC East office on a parking space. These agents have easy access to the DC and ADC.
An elderly woman who was waiting outside the ADC office for her daughter’s domicile told Daily Times that she was visiting the office for a couple of days to ask about the objection to her daughter’s domicile.
“It seems that everything in the country is on sale and all you need to do is to grease the palms of the officials to get the job done,” she said.
Quoting an incident, sources said the DC East issued a domicile and PRC to a Lahore-based woman who appeared in the CSS examination in the recent past and she was selected on Sindh’s quota.
However, a Sindh-domiciled young man approached the Sindh High Court in search of justice and everyone was shocked when it was revealed that the domicile was issued without proper verification to a Lahore-based woman, the sources disclosed.
Mohammad Ashraf, who was waiting outside the DC East office, told Daily Times that the staff had asked him to make birth certificate of his younger brother with an affidavit that shows he belongs to Karachi. “I was asked to pay Rs 2,000 for a domicile/PRC if I do not want to fulfill the requirements,” Ashraf added.
Daily Times repeatedly tried to seek official version of Deputy Commissioner East Asif Jah however his cell phone remained unattended till filing of the report.