Mahnoor Ansar

ISLAMABAD, FEB 24 /DNA/ – The government on Tuesday notified amendments to the National Identity Card Rules, 2002 and the Pakistan Origin Card Rules, 2002 to modernise the country’s identity document framework by legally embedding QR-based verification, strengthening authentication controls across digital services, expanding biometric recognition, and updating card formats for key citizen categories.

According to a handout by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), a core reform is the statutory introduction of the QR code — a scannable barcode containing horizontal and vertical lines, dots, and patterns — as a defined security and verification feature.

The rules now legally define QR codes as a secure, machine-readable, two-dimensional barcode capable of storing encoded information and converting it into usable identity verification data when scanned.

The amendments further authorise the use of a QR code or “any other technological feature,” in lieu of the current microchip, enabling Nadra to adopt evolving verification technologies without repeated rule amendments.

In operational terms, this establishes a robust legal basis for quick and secure verification of identity credentials in both offline and online environments. This will also enable all citizens to carry a similar card instead of the currently prevalent two types of national identity cards, one of which comes with a microchip and the other without.

This QR-enabled capability directly strengthens Pakistan’s Digital ID ecosystem and supports interoperability through the National Data Exchange Layer.