Senior Citizens, who reached the age of 65 have been exempted from renewal of their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) even if there cards have been expired.
"We have over 7.4 million senior citizens (3.28 million female and 4.11 million male) registered on NADRA database and they were exempted from renewal of CNICs as they have reached the age of 65 or have been issued the cards declared valid for lifetime", said Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman NADRA here on Friday.
People whose age is 65 or more do not need to visit NADRA centers to obtain a 'lifetime valid' CNIC, even if expiry date mentioned on their CNIC has already passed, Malik clarified. He said if an applicant gets the CNIC renewed after the age of 56, the CNIC is declared valid for life time which would be mentioned on the card and the card-holder would not have to renew it again. So far NADRA has issued 22,000 CNICs printed with life time validity for senior citizens, he added.
He urged the people less than 65 years' old to get their CNICs renewed immediately to avoid any inconvenience in legal, financial and other matters where a valid CNIC is compulsory. Tariq Malik said that demographic data of citizens is vital for analysis and planning for overall betterment of the country, which needs to be updated so that various development projects can be efficiently designed and executed.
He said that the policy of CNIC expiry after a specific period ensures that the data of each individual is regularly updated. Identity cards renewal protects citizens and their data updates protect them against identity theft. Renewal of CNIC also facilitates capturing of applicants' data as per new technology and procedures, eg currently capturing of 10 finger/thumb impressions instead of 4 and 2 finger/impressions as done in previous years, he added.
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