ISLAMABAD: On Thursday, Federal Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi announced a major overhaul of Nadra’s services, which includes the opening of three regional offices in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gwadar, and Gilgit-Baltistan, as well as the release of a new mobile app.
Beginning on January 17, the Pak-ID website will formally shut down, and all services will be moved to the updated mobile app.
The decision was made in response to problems that residents, especially Pakistanis living abroad, were having navigating the website’s interface, such as difficulties scanning and uploading papers and fingerprints. Fighting fraudulent activity is another reason for the website’s closure.
According to Minister Naqvi, scammers were utilizing phony websites to help create falsified identification documents and misuse the personal information of residents.
The National Database and Registration Authority, or Nadra, has updated its mobile app to incorporate all of the services that were previously accessible on the internet in order to improve user convenience. Now, citizens can apply from home for ID cards, NICOP, POC, B-Forms, and FRCs.
By March 31, three new regional offices will open in addition to digital innovations.
These offices seek to expedite citizen-official communication, enhance service delivery in outlying locations, and guarantee quicker complaint resolution.
The minister further disclosed that Nadra was on course to open offices by the same deadline in every tehsil in Pakistan. He noted that work is moving quickly to guarantee that the 19 tehsils that do not yet have Nadra offices be operational by March 31.
The action demonstrates the government’s dedication to improving accessibility and thwarting fraud, offering residents across the country a smooth and safe experience.
In the meantime, a major agreement to improve the efficiency and transparency of public procurement procedures was reached between Nadra Technologies Limited (NTL) and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).
Under this agreement, suppliers and bidders who plan to register in the e-PAK Acquisition and Disposal System (EPADS) will be able to use biometric verification services from the NTL via more than 21,000 Nadra e-SahuIat.
By incorporating biometric verification into the EPADS system, “we are taking a proactive approach to combat fraud and ensure the highest standards of integrity in public procurement,” said Sheikh Afzaal Rana, PPRA’s project director.
Muhammad Umar Khan, the CEO of the NTL, expressed confidence that this partnership would greatly enhance the effectiveness and openness of public procurement in Pakistan by offering safe and trustworthy biometric verification services.
The entire public procurement ecosystem is anticipated to benefit from the implementation of this agreement, and approximately 35,000 bidders and suppliers will be validated in the first phase.
There will soon be 300,000 more people in this number.
Attendees were Deputy Director NTL Malik Saleem Anwar, Head of e-Sahulat Irfan Anwar, Principal Software Engineer Syed Abid Ali Rizvi, Principal Business Analyst from PPRA Warda Tanveer, and Chief Technology Officer Hafiz Javed Ahmed.