Pakistanis can renew or reprint an electronic passport at any National Database and Registration Authority centre from today, moving the transaction out of the passport offices that have handled it until now.
The change is a split by transaction type rather than a transfer of the whole function. Renewals and reprints go to NADRA centres, including those in Karachi and other cities. New e-passport issuance, amendments and the issuing of new machine-readable passports stay with the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports.
The service runs under an agreement between that directorate and NADRA. The passport counters currently staffed inside NADRA offices will be phased out and the staff posted to them recalled.
The document at the centre of it carries an electronic chip holding the holder’s biometric and personal data and is built to International Civil Aviation Organization standards. It also has an NFC chip, laser engraving and infrared and ultraviolet security features, which NADRA says make identity checks at airports quicker and harder to defeat.
The authority has separately added appointment booking to the Pak ID mobile app, letting citizens reserve a slot at a NADRA office rather than queue on arrival. Applicants book from home and attend at the scheduled time.
Appointment booking arrived with a new release of the Pak ID app carrying several other services. NADRA spokesperson Shabahat Ali said the version adds online complaints to the Federal Investigation Agency, family record correction, signature upload and access to digital identity documents.
The release also lets applicants check the status of a national identity card application from home, by logging in, selecting the tracking option and entering the tracking ID and PIN code from their receipt. The same status can be retrieved by texting the tracking ID to 8400 or by calling 1777.
NADRA has also reminded citizens to collect identity cards on time. An uncollected card is destroyed three months after the final delivery date, after which the applicant must apply and pay again.
Pakistan has been steadily moving passport-related identity checks onto NADRA infrastructure. The country began accepting the Pak ID digital card for passport identity checks in July, which removed the need to present the physical national identity card at that step.
The authority has also been at the centre of an unresolved question about who runs face verification for SIM sales, with NADRA and the telecoms regulator disagreeing over control of those checks in August.
Sources: Daily Pakistan, ProPakistani
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
