NADRA cancels 4.2 million CNICs after record verification

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has completed a major verification exercise aimed at improving the accuracy and integrity of Pakistan’s national identity system by reconciling civil registration records with the national citizen database.

According to NADRA, the reconciliation process between the Civil Registration System and the National Citizen Database has been completed, leading to the cancellation of around 4.2 million Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) belonging to individuals already registered as deceased in civil records.

Officials said the cancellations were carried out under the provisions of the NADRA Ordinance and the National Identity Card Rules. Despite their deaths being recorded in the Civil Registration System, the CNICs had remained active because the families concerned had not updated the records with NADRA.

The authority noted that 42 lakh CNICs remained active even though the deaths had already been registered with provincial civil registration authorities, creating discrepancies in national demographic statistics.

Following NADRA’s recent facilitation measures and awareness efforts, the families of about 3 million deceased individuals have now approached the authority to formally cancel the identity cards.

NADRA emphasized that failure to cancel CNICs of deceased individuals can lead to inconsistencies in national population data. In some cases, identity cards may also be cancelled mistakenly or due to malicious intent by relatives.

The authority advised citizens that if a CNIC is cancelled by mistake, they should contact NADRA to obtain details of the relevant Union Council record, correct the information there, and then update their details with NADRA.

Separately, NADRA revealed that births of around 14 million children have been registered with Union Councils but have not yet been recorded in NADRA’s database. To address this gap, the authority has begun sending reminder SMS messages to parents or guardians.

Parents have been urged to visit the National Database and Registration Authority offices at the earliest and obtain B-Forms (Child Registration Certificates) for their children to ensure their inclusion in the national database.