After the time-wasting I did chasing after my ID card, I had decided to forget it and hope that it somehow finds me, but a couple of days ago, Sufyan wanted to go and submit his own application so I went with him to the G-8 NADRA center.
I thought I’d just check where they had sent mine off to this time, but surprisingly, as soon as I told the lady at the counter my first name, she told me to hold on and brought out my card in a sealed envelope. She didn’t ask for the number or copies of my parent’s IDs. Not even for my old ID. Just brought it out and gave it to me. I was expecting it to belong to one of the countless other Ahmed’s, but it was surely mine.
The funny thing about these new IDs is that there doesn’t seem to be any rule regarding their expiry date. Some of my friends’ ones expire within 5 years and others in 8 or 10. So far I’m winning with an expiry date of 2018. That’s 14 years of not having to deal with these goons (fingers crossed). Cool.