By Qaiser Zulfiqar
ISLAMABAD, Feb 21 (APP): The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has submitted its annual performance report for the year ending January 2026 to the Ministry of Interior, revealing major progress in both citizen registration and digital identity services across Pakistan.
According to the report, 227 million citizens are now registered with NADRA, pushing the country’s total coverage to nearly 97 percent. Of the registered population, 48 percent are women and 52 percent are men, a distribution the authority says reflects a continuing improvement in women’s participation in the registration system.
The report further states that 31.9 million children have had their births recorded at Union Councils, although they have not yet been integrated into NADRA’s central system. The authority describes this as the next major step toward achieving full national documentation.
NADRA’s biometric database continues to expand rapidly. The system now contains facial records of 170 million people, iris scans of 7 million individuals, and nearly 1.64 billion fingerprints. In the year 2025 alone, the authority conducted 465 million biometric verifications, which it says played a vital role in strengthening transparency and supporting the government’s transition to digital governance.
The registration system saw steady growth during the year. Overall, national registration rose by four percent, the registration of children under 18 increased by eleven percent, and the renewal of expired identity cards went up by twenty-four percent. A striking rise of nine hundred percent was recorded in the cancellation of identity cards following the death of cardholders, while women’s registration increased by eight percent, a trend NADRA has described as a welcome development.
To expand public access, NADRA operated 938 registration centers across Pakistan by the end of the year. Seventy-five new centers were established, while 138 new counters and an additional 126 counters were added to existing offices to meet rising demand.
To reach remote and underserved regions, 231 mobile registration vans—including 33 satellite units—were deployed, complemented by Minipacs and motorbike teams providing services at the Union Council level, where 62 counters remained active. Overseas Pakistanis also saw improved access to documentation through the establishment of six new counters in five different countries.
The report notes that NADRA has transformed 98 percent of its transactions into cashless processes and modernized its national call center to enhance public experience. A major milestone in the authority’s digital shift was the performance of the Pak Identity mobile application, which handled 15 percent of NADRA’s overall workload. The app, whose downloads exceeded 12 million, enabled millions of citizens to complete their documentation processes from home without visiting a NADRA center.
In 2025, the federal government approved the National Registration and Biometric Policy Framework, laying the foundation for a fully integrated national registration and biometric system. As part of ongoing reforms, NADRA began issuing biometric Child Registration Certificates from the age of three and granted the Family Registration Certificate a formal legal status.
Despite achieving near-total national coverage, the report acknowledges that registration gaps persist for women and young children in certain regions. NADRA has proposed specific policy measures to address these challenges and ensure that the remaining unregistered population is fully documented.
With widespread digital adoption, an expanding service network and improved accessibility, the report concludes that Pakistan’s national identity system is now approaching complete coverage, marking a significant milestone in the country’s ongoing efforts to modernize its registration framework.