With her NID blocked, Sheikh Hasina has no scope to apply for a new one

After leaving the country and taking shelter in India following the July uprising, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina had her national identity card (NID) blocked by the Election Commission (EC). Election Commission officials say that while an NID remains blocked, there is no scope to obtain a new one.

According to EC officials, there are two reasons for this: one legal, and one technical.

Under the National Identity Card Act, once a person has received an NID, there is no scope to apply for a new one. In other words, obtaining an NID twice is a punishable offence under the law.

Many people have obtained NIDs by registering as voters twice. After being caught, cases were filed against them. Others admitted in good faith that they had applied for more than one NID and had one cancelled; in such cases the first one is kept and the second one cancelled.

From a technical point of view, there is now almost no scope for a person to register twice and obtain an NID. When a later application is made, the applicant's fingerprints are first searched in the server to see whether they match.

If the person has registered before, the match is easily found, and the later application is not processed any further. In the past, however, some people registered a second time using their toe prints instead of their finger prints. Now that this has come to notice, those matters are also watched.

Sources said that in March last year, Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, system manager of the NID wing, locked the NIDs of Sheikh Hasina and ten members of her family. At the time he noted in the file that the NIDs of the ten people were locked on the verbal instruction of the director general of the NID division, ASM Humayun Kabir.

Those whose NIDs were locked are Rehana Siddiq, Sheikh Hasina, Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed, Saima Wazed, Shahin Siddiq, Bushra Siddiq, Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, Azmina Siddiq, Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Tariq Ahmed Siddiq.

Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, system manager of the EC's NID wing, said that once an NID is locked, the card can no longer be used. An NID is also locked until an investigation is completed if someone became a voter with false information. In most cases, NIDs are also locked at the request of many VIPs, so that no one can misuse them, and they are unlocked again at their request.

Before the NIDs of Sheikh Hasina and her family members were locked, Bangladesh Bank had frozen the bank accounts of Hasina and members of the Sheikh family. Withdrawing money from a bank account requires NID verification, and the NID has now become essential for various citizen services.

Responsible EC officials say that an NID being locked does not mean the information in it is incorrect or that the person obtained the NID with false information. NIDs are also locked at the request of various agencies for corruption or other reasons. The former prime minister's NID was not locked because of wrong information; all the information in her NID is correct, it is simply in a locked state. That means she will not receive any citizen benefit with this NID, and so the question of applying afresh does not apply to her.

Md Saiful Islam, director (operations) of the EC's NID wing, said he does not know about the former prime minister's case, nor where she is or what she has applied for. But in general, he said, if anyone's NID is blocked, it can be said that the person has no scope to apply and get a new NID, because the person already has an NID — it is just in a locked state.

The matter became the talk of the country on Monday (9 November) after Reuters reported that Sheikh Hasina had applied to the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi for a new passport and NID.

Saidur Rahman, press minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, said former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ousted in the student-led mass uprising, did not herself apply for a new passport or NID. He said the mission had received an email from an organisation called Matrix Chambers requesting the issuance of a passport and NID in Sheikh Hasina's name. Whether the request is genuine, he said, they do not know, and there is no way of knowing that the request is on Sheikh Hasina's behalf.

Saidur Rahman said the email from the law firm contained no document or proof of Sheikh Hasina's approval or authorisation. However, he said, the mission forwarded the email to the foreign ministry.

Sources said her lawyer wrote to the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi requesting the issuance of a new Bangladeshi passport and national identity card (NID) for Sheikh Hasina. Steven Powles KC, a UK-based lawyer, sent the letter on Monday (9 November) to Preeti Rahman, the acting high commissioner of Bangladesh in New Delhi, India.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir described the application for a new passport and national identity card (NID) for Sheikh Hasina as extremely ridiculous. He said Bangladesh does not give a passport to any terrorist; rather, it wants to bring her back under the extradition treaty and carry out her sentence.