ISLAMABAD, Feb 22 (APP): Pakistan’s efforts to achieve universal identity registration have entered a critical new phase as authorities move to close the country’s remaining 1.7 percent gap in adult enrollment, a gap that has stubbornly persisted despite years of administrative reforms and outreach campaigns.
While officials highlight the country’s achievement of 98.3 percent adult registration, they also concede that the remaining shortfall is concentrated in the same demographic and geographic pockets long associated with weak documentation systems: women, low-income districts, and areas lacking functional civil registration infrastructure. The absence of a computerized birth certificate, historically the primary feeder document for first-time registration, has remained the single largest barrier.
It was against this backdrop that the National Database and Registration Authority undertook a rare, large-scale diagnostic exercise while preparing its Annual Report 2025. For the first time in a decade, NADRA pulled and analyzed ten years of registration data, scrutinizing demographic patterns and district-level disparities. The review was conducted in coordination with institutions whose mandates intersect with civil documentation, including the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the Election Commission of Pakistan, the National Commission on the Status of Women, and the National Commission for Child Welfare and Development. Together, these bodies provided a data-rich picture of why certain communities remain undocumented in a system long considered one of the most digitized in the region.
According to officials familiar with the internal deliberations, the findings revealed not only predictable administrative gaps but also entrenched socio-cultural dynamics: women unable to verify parentage, men above 24 without documented fathers or siblings, and applicants whose family records exist in NADRA databases but lack the feeder documents required to activate them. Some of the most complex cases involved deceased parents whose digital records were intact yet unusable due to mandatory in-person biometrics that could no longer be completed.
When these findings were presented to the Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control, the instructions were unequivocal. The ministry directed NADRA to craft a legally defensible, tightly controlled and time-limited facilitation mechanism to bring the hardest-to-reach citizens into the identity system without compromising verification standards. After weeks of drafting, the NADRA Authority Board approved a framework grounded in Section 5(1)(b) and Section 20 of the NADRA Ordinance, 2000, and supported by Rule 8 of the NADRA NIC Rules, 2002—provisions that allow alternative verification routes under specific, exceptional circumstances.
The resulting mechanism, now in effect and valid until 31 December 2026, creates a narrow but critical pathway for first-time applicants who lack a computerized birth certificate. Unlike previous drives that relied on broad outreach, this initiative is more forensic than promotional: identity can only be established through existing NADRA records and mandatory biometric verification of immediate family members already registered in the system. For married or unmarried women, this means relying on documented parents—and, where applicable, husbands—to verify lineage. For men over 24, the system requires not just documented parents but at least one registered sibling, a safeguard designed to strengthen the chain of verification.
Investigators within NADRA say the internal debates were intense. Some officials cautioned that relaxing documentation requirements risked creating loopholes for identity fraud. Others argued that failing to include the unregistered—particularly women—carried far greater long-term risks, including exclusion from voting rolls, social protection programs, inheritance claims and cross-border mobility. The final mechanism reflects this tension: exemptions are permitted only in cases where parents or spouses are deceased but digitally recorded, and even then, only after record-based linkage and multi-layered verification checks.
In a significant move aimed at reducing financial deterrents, NADRA has also waived fees for Teslin non-smart CNICs issued under the Normal category for applicants covered by this facilitation. Officials describe the decision as an attempt to remove the last remaining barrier for families living in districts where both documentation and income levels lag behind national averages.
Yet the stakes extend far beyond administrative convenience. Once parentage, date of birth and place of birth are entered into the National Identity System, these details become permanent and cannot be modified, making accuracy at the time of registration both essential and consequential. NADRA has emphasized this point in its internal communications, urging field officers to exercise heightened scrutiny while encouraging eligible applicants to come forward.
As the 2026 deadline approaches, the success of the initiative will depend heavily on whether communities long isolated from formal documentation systems trust the state enough to engage with it. For now, officials say the mechanism represents the most comprehensive attempt in years to close Pakistan’s final identity gap—one defined not by numbers, but by the stories of those who have remained invisible in a system built to count everyone.