Nadra Takes Over Biometric Verification Of Pensioners

The federal government has removed commercial banks from the routine biometric and Proof of Life Certificate (POLC) verification process for more than three million civilian and military pensioners, assigning the responsibility to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

Under the revised Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Nadra will conduct biometric verification of pensioners and send their Digital Life Signal directly to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and Military Accountant General (MAG) through a secure application programming interface (API).

The new arrangement removes commercial banks from the regular verification mechanism and limits their function to serving as Pension Disbursement Agencies.

Official figures show that Pakistan has 1.848 million civilian pensioners covering federal and provincial governments, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Pakistan Railways. A further 1.326 million are military pensioners, bringing the combined total above three million.

Among the 1,848,151 civilian pensioners, Punjab has the largest share at 610,823, followed by the federal government with 399,058 and Sindh with 320,754.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 225,112 civilian pensioners, while Pakistan Railways has 124,230, Balochistan 100,528, AJK 51,641 and GB 16,005.

According to a communication from the Ministry of Finance to the State Bank of Pakistan governor and the CGA, the revised procedures have been introduced following directives from the prime minister.

The government has formally ended the role of commercial banks in carrying out standard biometric verification and validating POLCs for pensioners.

Under normal circumstances, banks will have no statutory or administrative responsibility for verifying, collecting, retaining or validating POLCs or biometric information. Their role may only extend to acting as an authorised channel through Nadra’s designated system for generating POLCs.

The revised SOPs also prevent banks from declaring pension-disbursing accounts dormant for the purpose of processing or paying pensions. Regular bank dormancy requirements will not apply to these accounts.

The new procedures replace all previous arrangements and also abolish the physical “Disburser’s Half” system. Federal pensions will now be paid exclusively through the Direct Credit System.