Transgender CNIC in Pakistan: How NADRA’s Registration Policy Works (2026 Guide)

NADRA

Last Updated: October 2026

NADRA registers transgender persons under a written Transgender Registration Policy that it lists on its Downloads page. A person who lives with their family, or stays in regular contact with them, applies with a computerised birth certificate and the parents’ CNICs. A person who lives in a community led by a Guru is registered through the Guru, whom NADRA registers first on the District Social Welfare Officer’s verification. The policy says the card is issued free of cost, in the Executive category, within seven working days of the application, and that the applicant’s self-perceived gender is recorded.

That policy sits beside a court ruling. On 19 May 2023 the Federal Shariat Court declared four provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 against Islam, including the one recognising self-perceived gender identity. NADRA halted its “X” card registration, resumed it on 25 September 2023, and appeals against the ruling went to the Supreme Court. We found no report of a decision on them. This guide sets out what NADRA publishes, what the courts and the press have reported, and what we could not confirm. We did not visit a registration centre or submit an application.

The two routes in NADRA’s policy

The policy starts from how transgender persons live and sets a route for each arrangement. It says a few live with their families or stay in regular contact with them, and that most live in communities led by a mentor known as a Guru.

Question	Living with family or in regular contact	Living in a community led by a Guru
Who is registered first	The applicant, as for any CNIC.	The Guru, as a Guru in NADRA’s database. A Guru with no CNIC is registered as a Guru once the CNIC has been issued.
What the policy asks for	A computerised birth certificate and the parents’ CNICs, as under the Registration Policy.	For the Guru: a CNIC, a written application and an attested affidavit. For a chela, the person in the Guru’s care: a CNIC application with the Guru as head of the record and the Guru’s biometric verification.
Parents’ names on the record	The actual names.	The actual names if known. If they are unknown, the system picks parents’ names at random from its database.

If you live with your family or stay in touch with them

NADRA’s policy says these applicants are registered on a computerised birth certificate and their parents’ CNICs, as under the Registration Policy in force, with the applicant’s self-perceived gender mentioned. The ordinary documents are covered in our guides to a new CNIC and to the computerised birth certificate, which also explains how an adult registers a birth that was never recorded. The exception the policy writes down is for unknown parents, described below.

If you live in a Guru’s community

NADRA’s policy builds this route around the Guru, who is registered first and then made head of each chela’s record. In NADRA’s documents a chela is also spelled chaila.

1. The Guru gathers three things. A CNIC, a written application addressed to the District Social Welfare Officer, and an affidavit on stamp paper of Rs 20 or more, attested by an Oath Commissioner or Notary Public. The policy says both the application and the affidavit must be filled in with complete information.
2. The District Social Welfare Officer verifies. The officer verifies the Guru’s request and sends a report, with the affidavit, to NADRA to register the person as a Guru in its database.
3. NADRA registers the Guru at headquarters. The policy says a Guru’s registration is carried out at NADRA headquarters through its regional head offices. A Guru who has no CNIC is registered as a Guru after receiving one through the transgender registration procedure.
4. Each chela applies with the Guru as head. The registered Guru is made head of the chela’s record, and the Guru’s biometric verification is carried out when the application is processed. If the chela’s parents are known, their actual names are entered. If they are not, the system selects parents’ names at random from its database.
5. New chelas need a new affidavit. If chelas are added later, another affidavit naming them goes to the District Social Welfare Officer for verification.

NADRA’s Inclusive Registration page says it keeps a database of Gurus registered with the Federal and Provincial Social Welfare Departments so that chelas can be registered under them, and that it has a special policy for transgender persons whose parents are unknown. For that case, Registration Policy RP-6.0.2 (page 11) adds that a computerised birth certificate is not mandatory and that the necessary affidavits, as per NADRA’s specimen, go with the primary requirement. Our guide to biometric verification explains how the check itself works.

The two forms on NADRA’s Downloads page

NADRA’s Downloads page lists two transgender forms under Forms, both in Urdu and both dated 4 June 2025. Both are for registering a Guru. The policy says a format for each is attached, and both carry the policy’s heading. The Forms category holds 13 items, and these are the only transgender ones. It has no CNIC application form for transgender applicants, so the card itself is applied for as an ordinary CNIC.

NADRA’s title	What it is
Transgender Registration Application Form (Urdu)	An application addressed to the Secretary of the District Social Welfare Office, headed as an application for registration as a Guru. It asks for the applicant’s name, alias, CNIC number and present and permanent addresses, and for the number of persons in their care, with a table of names and parentage if known (five rows). A declaration says all of them are Pakistani citizens whom the applicant knows personally, that the applicant is responsible for the accuracy of their particulars, and that a false statement can bring action under the NADRA Ordinance, 2000 and other law.
Transgender Registration by Guro Form (Urdu), NADRA’s spelling	An affidavit headed for registration of a Guru, to be made on stamp paper of Rs 20 or more. It repeats the personal details, states the total number of chelas and how many have known and unknown parents, lists them, and carries the same declaration and a left thumb impression. The District Social Welfare Office verifies in a box with its stamp, and the form has room for two witnesses with their CNIC numbers and for the signature and seal of an Oath Commissioner or Notary Public.

Both files are scanned images, so their text cannot be searched or copied. We read them as scans, and the copy your office hands you governs.

Fee and timeline

The policy’s remarks say the CNIC is issued to transgender persons free of cost, on a Teslin-based card, in the Executive category, within seven working days after the application form is submitted. For comparison, NADRA’s fee structure (site version V3.1.3, updated 17 September 2026) lists a new CNIC in the Executive category at PKR 2,150 with a six day timeline, and it has no transgender line of its own. Our CNIC fees guide has the full table.

The policy also says Mobile Registration Vans and Manpack teams are to serve the community when it asks for them or when the district committee wants them. Our guide to finding a NADRA office describes what the vans do. The policy was written for the Teslin card. NADRA introduced a QR code card on 14 August 2026, and our guide to the types of CNIC explains what is and is not known about it. NADRA has not said how the transgender policy applies to the new card.

What the card shows, and changing the gender field

NADRA’s pages do not say what the gender field shows. We found no mention of an “X” marker on its website, in the Registration Policy or in the Transgender Registration Policy. The Federal Shariat Court’s judgment records NADRA’s answer that it issues an ID card with gender mark “X” to intersex, eunuch, transgender woman and transgender man applicants (paragraph 43), and Dawn’s report of the 2023 resumption likewise speaks of “X” cards. The judgment also records a complaint from intersex persons who appeared before the court that a card marked “X” stops them performing Umrah or Hajj, and says NADRA must develop rules or criteria for issuing cards to Khunsa (intersex) persons so that they can perform Hajj. We found nothing NADRA has published on that point.

Changing the field later is limited. Registration Policy RP-6.0.2 (page 15) lists two requirements for a gender change: an application, and the computerised birth certificate or, for transgender applicants only, “appearance/desire”. Its remarks add that a change from transgender to male or female is not entertained, and that a change from male to female or the reverse is entertained only on documentary evidence of the gender change procedure from a government, private or foreign hospital together with a verified medical certificate from a government hospital. Correction cases are processed as office mistakes, and an amended birth registration certificate is required if one was issued before. Our family record guide covers the same rule.

Where the law stands

NADRA’s policy cites the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018. Section 3 of that Act gave an adult transgender citizen the right to be registered with NADRA, on the CNIC among other documents, according to their self-perceived gender identity. Deciding twelve petitions together on 19 May 2023, the Federal Shariat Court declared Section 2(1)(f) (the definition of gender identity), Section 2(1)(n)(iii) (the part of the definition of a transgender person covering transgender men, transgender women and KhawajaSira), Section 3 and Section 7 (inheritance) against the injunctions of Islam, and said they would cease to have legal effect immediately. It did not strike down the definitions of intersex (Khusra) and eunuch persons, and it said Islamic law gives intersex persons the rights the Act lists.

Date	What happened	Where it is reported
18 June and 15 October 2018	Supreme Court orders in Human Rights Case 32005-P of 2018 set up provincial and district committees to help transgender persons obtain CNICs.	NADRA’s policy
19 May 2023	The Federal Shariat Court’s judgment. NADRA then halts “X” card registration.	The judgment, Dawn
July 2023	An appeal is filed in the Supreme Court’s Shariat Appellate Bench.	Dawn
August 2023	The National Commission for Human Rights writes to NADRA that the judgment remains ineffective under Article 203D of the Constitution while appeals are pending.	NCHR
25 September 2023	NADRA withdraws its halt and resumes printing “X” cards.	Dawn
March 2024	The Sindh Human Rights Commission asks NADRA to register transgender persons without discrimination, citing a Supreme Court ruling that a Federal Shariat Court decision under appeal has not come into effect. Dawn also reports a complaint that Hyderabad offices said the central system was not yet updated.	Dawn, 27 March 2024
20 October 2025	NADRA’s Downloads page lists the Transgender Registration Policy, which does not mention the ruling.	NADRA

NADRA’s public engagement director told Dawn in September 2023 that the process had been halted after the ruling and resumed once the matter was before the apex court. In the proceedings NADRA told the Federal Shariat Court that it had no rules or regulations setting out the procedure for these cards and followed a policy (paragraph 38). We found no report from a reliable outlet of a Supreme Court decision on the appeals, and we could not check the court’s own records.

If a centre refuses or delays

Refusals have been reported. Dawn’s March 2024 report described a complaint that NADRA had stopped issuing cards to transgender persons in Sindh, and said that after the notification was withdrawn the offices in Hyderabad were told the central system had not yet been updated. Biometric Update’s report of 16 May 2024, relaying The Nation’s account of a Sindh Human Rights Commission meeting in Larkana, said community members named birth certificates, parents’ no-objection certificates and the presence of parents as obstacles. It reported NADRA officials as saying no Form-B is needed for transgender applicants and that a Guru can confirm identity and give biometrics where a birth certificate is not available. Treat that as a news report of a meeting, not a NADRA publication.

• Ask which rule the office is applying, and ask whether it can say so in writing. The policy’s seven working days run from the application, so the first thing to settle is whether the office will accept it.
• Go to the District Social Welfare Officer. The policy names the officer as the secretary of a district committee, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner with NADRA’s zonal head as a member, whose job is to facilitate transgender persons’ registration. The committees were set up under the Supreme Court’s 2018 orders, and we could not confirm that one is active in your district.
• Complain to NADRA. The helpline is 1777, and NADRA runs a complaint portal and open e-Kachehri forums. Our helpline guide lists every channel.
• Contact a human rights commission. The National Commission for Human Rights wrote to NADRA about refusals in August 2023, and Dawn reported a Sindh Human Rights Commission letter on the same subject in March 2024.

What we could not confirm

• The PakID app. The policy describes centres and Mobile Registration Vans and does not mention the app, and we did not test it.
• How long a Guru’s registration takes. The policy sets no time for the District Social Welfare Officer or for headquarters. Its only time limit, seven working days, runs from the CNIC application.
• Renewals and replacements. The policy says the CNIC is free of cost. Dawn’s December 2021 report of a NADRA campaign said first-time registration is free for all transgender persons, and neither says whether renewal or replacement is.
• The QR card. The policy names a Teslin-based card, and NADRA has not said what a transgender applicant receives now.
• Children. The policy is written for CNIC applicants and does not say how it applies to anyone under 18, for whom NADRA issues a CRC, the B-Form.
• Whether the Supreme Court has ruled. We found no report of a decision, and could not check the court’s records.

Common mistakes

• Looking for a transgender CNIC form to fill in at home. The two forms on NADRA’s Downloads page are for registering a Guru, not for the card.
• Using ordinary paper for the Guru’s affidavit. The policy and the form both say stamp paper of Rs 20 or more, attested by an Oath Commissioner or Notary Public.
• Following 2017 reports on attestation. Dawn’s 2017 report on NADRA’s earlier policy said a first-class magistrate attests the Guru’s affidavit. The policy NADRA lists now names an Oath Commissioner or Notary Public.
• Expecting an ordinary counter to register a Guru. The policy places it at headquarters, through the regional head offices, after the District Social Welfare Officer’s report.
• Planning to change the gender field later. The Registration Policy does not entertain a change from transgender to male or female, and a change between male and female needs medical evidence.
• Paying a charge without asking what it is for. The policy says the card is free of cost in the Executive category.

Sources: the routes, documents, Guru procedure, fee, timeline and committees from NADRA’s Transgender Registration Policy and the two forms on its Downloads page, the Guru database and unknown-parentage policy from its Inclusive Registration page, the unknown-parents and gender-change rules from Registration Policy RP-6.0.2, pages 11 and 15, and the Executive category fee from its fee structure; the ruling, paragraphs 38, 43 and 96, from the Federal Shariat Court’s judgment in Shariat Petition 5/I of 2020 and eleven connected petitions; NADRA’s halt and resumption from Dawn, the Sindh Human Rights Commission letter from Dawn, 27 March 2024, the August 2023 letter from the National Commission for Human Rights, the 2017 policy from Dawn, 30 August 2017, the 2021 statement from Dawn, 11 December 2021, and the Larkana meeting from Biometric Update, 16 May 2024. All read between 3 and 5 October 2026. The Urdu forms were read as scans. NADRA and the courts can change these without notice.

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