UAE Identity Card may replace all other cards

Dr Saeed bin Rakan Al Dhahiri, Director of the UAE Identity Authority, told reporters in Abu Dhabi yesterday that on the instruction of Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior and Deputy Chairman of the UAE Identification Authority, a legal working team was formed, headed by director of the Authority and comprising two legal advisors and others, to draft the law for Population Record and Identity Card.

Dr Dhahiri said the team has, to this effect, reviewed the legislations in force in the UAE pertaining to nationality, passports, birth and death registers, and other related topics. They also reviewed legislations of the GCC countries, like Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, as well as the legislations of international countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. These comparisons will be made use of while maintaining the exclusive position of the UAE.

The proposed law will incorporate the main issues related to the Population Record and Identity Card, and an executive by-law for the said law, shall be issued later in different contexts.

He said that the articles of the proposed law stipulated that all UAE citizens and expatriates should obtain ID cards, that the new card must be used in transactions between government, public sectors and individuals, and that employees would be liable to legal measures in the event they divulged private information on individuals.

Persons who give the wrong information to the census officers shall also be liable to legal action. The UAE Identity Card will in future replace the labour, health and driving cards and others, he pointed out.

The Council of the UAE Identification Authority, during its latest meeting chaired, by Shaikh Saif, had approved a Federal Law related to the Population Records and Identification Card project, which will be submitted to the bodies concerned for approval before the Identity Card project is implemented in coming December (END).

Dr Dhahiri said the on-going 'General Census of Population, Housing and Establishments' is likely to be the last national census.

"The current population census will help us a great deal in having a plan for recording and knowing the population structure. But as soon as the census is over, we will not need to carry out any further census as the existing records will be continually updated," he added.