In Pakistan too, ethnic Bengalis face challenges with citizenship papers
· Scroll
In Pakistan, marriage remains a deeply important cultural tradition. It is viewed as both a personal milestone and a collective expectation. Families see marital unions as central to maintaining lineage, strengthening kinship networks, and ensuring continuity through children. But this foundational institution becomes fraught when individuals lack the documentation required to formalise marriage, register children or access the basic services such as education.
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This is particularly evident among Pakistani Bengalis in Karachi, a community of an estimated three million people, now in its fourth generation in Pakistan, who face issues around obtaining and maintaining citizenship.
Identity documentation in the young country of Pakistan first emerged in 1973 in the form of paper identity cards. This development was driven largely by the government’s need to record and better understand the composition of the population, particularly in response to an influx of ethnic Bengalis arriving after Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan.
In 2000, Pakistan replaced these manual paper-based identity cards with biometric Computerised National Identity Cards and established The National Database and Registry Authority for citizens, alongside the National Alien Registration Authority for foreigners.
Due to discrimination, resulting from the continued treatment of ethnic Bengalis as outsiders post 1971, many Pakistani Bengalis were mistakenly classified as foreigners by local officials when they should have received...