NADRA Proof of Life Certificate for Pensioners: How to Get It and How Often (2026 Guide)

NADRA

Last Updated: October 2026

A federal government pensioner now proves they are alive through NADRA, not through the bank. NADRA issues the Proof of Life Certificate (PoLC) free of charge for pensioners, through the PakID app, its registration centres, Union Councils, e-Sahulat franchises and its mobile services, and the result goes to the pension authorities as a Digital Life Signal. The Finance Division’s SOP of 18 September 2026 requires a verification at least once every six months, at any time within that period, and tells banks not to collect or verify life certificates or biometric data in the ordinary course.

This guide follows NADRA’s release of 21 August 2026, its PakID user guideline for the certificate, and the SOP itself, which we read in the Finance Division’s circular. The SOP covers federal pensioners, so a provincial or private pension may work differently. It replaced earlier procedures, including one of 7 September 2026, so older instructions may be wrong. We did not use the app ourselves.

What changed in August and September 2026

Date	What happened	Source
20 to 21 August 2026	NADRA makes the certificate free for pensioners and names five ways to get it. Its release is dated 21 August, and Dawn dates the launch to 20 August.	NADRA, Dawn
22 August 2026	The Finance Division says banks must not mark pension accounts dormant because of biometric verification or proof of life.	The SOP, section 1.6
7 September 2026	An earlier SOP is issued. The 18 September SOP replaces it.	The SOP, section 1.4
18 September 2026	The Finance Division issues the revised SOP: verification through NADRA, a six-month cycle and no verification role for banks.	The Finance Division
20 September 2026	Dawn reports more than 337,000 certificates in the month since launch: 52 per cent through the PakID app, 40 per cent at registration centres, 7 per cent at e-Sahulat centres and 1 per cent through mobile vans.	Dawn, citing NADRA

Who the SOP covers

The SOP applies to federal government pensioners under the Defined Benefits Pension Scheme, whether they live in Pakistan or live abroad and draw their pension in Pakistan. Its opening paragraph describes them as retired civil servants. Its Annex-I lists the pension controllers it covers: the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues, the Military Accountant General, the offices of the Accountants General of the provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and departments that keep their own accounts, among them the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan Post, the Forest Departments, the Central Directorate of National Savings, the Pakistan Mint, Pakistan Railways and the Public Works Department. The provincial offices and the departments adopt the SOP once they are integrated with NADRA and the Controller General of Accounts or the Military Accountant General.

NADRA says the first phase of its National Pensioners Register covers pensioners administered by the Controller General of Accounts and the Military Accountant General. It plans to extend the register to pensioners of other federal and provincial organisations, public-sector bodies and private institutions once agreements are in place. NADRA told Dawn that if a CNIC number is not in the list of pensioners, the department concerned should be contacted.

How to get the certificate on the PakID app

NADRA’s Proof of Life Certificate user guideline, a ten page file on its Downloads page dated 14 November 2025, gives the steps. The screens may have changed since, so follow the app where it differs. Our PakID app guide covers the app itself.

1. Start the application. Open the PakID app and tap Proof of Life under Biometrics.
2. Choose the applicant. Select Myself, or select My Blood Relatives (parents, siblings, spouse or minors) if their application is being made from your app, and enter the applicant’s details.
3. Check the fee and begin verification. The guideline says the fee is shown at the bottom of the screen. Tap the green Verify Applicant Facial button. The app warns that facial verification comes first and fingerprint verification follows.
4. Verify the face. Stand in bright light with the face clear in the frame and no hat, glasses or mask. Choose the front or back camera, keep the face inside the white circle and hold the phone steady, and the app takes the photo by itself. Crop it to the rectangle shown and tap Save.
5. Verify the fingerprints. Tap the button for each hand, such as Left Hand, and capture the fingers with the camera. NADRA says the best quality comes with the green arrow in the centre and a steady hand and camera.
6. Collect the certificate. The app confirms that the application was submitted. Tap Go to ID Vault, then My Documents, then the POLC folder. The application is listed with a tracking ID, and tapping the document opens it.

NADRA’s release says a pensioner who cannot use the app can have an immediate family member obtain the certificate through the family member’s own PakID account, subject to the prescribed identity verification. NADRA does not say what that involves. The guideline’s own steps verify the applicant’s face and then fingerprints, so plan for the pensioner to be present.

The guideline predates NADRA’s August 2026 release, which made the certificate free of charge for pensioners. If the app asks for money, stop and ask NADRA on 1777, as described in our helpline guide.

Other places to get it

Channel	What NADRA or the SOP says
PakID app	NADRA calls it the easiest option, with the certificate obtained digitally from home.
NADRA Registration Centres	More than 988, where pensioners get preferential service without waiting in the regular queue.
Union Councils	500, with the same preferential service.
e-Sahulat franchises	More than 5,000, free of charge. Our e-Sahulat guide explains that not every outlet offers NADRA services.
Mobile Registration Vans, biker and man-pack services	For pensioners with limited mobility or limited access to a service point. See our guide to finding a NADRA office.
Bank branches and bank apps	The SOP allows them only where they operate strictly as NADRA PoLC centres. A bank cannot require you to go to one.

How often, and what happens if you miss it

The SOP says a pensioner must complete biometric verification at least once every six months and abolishes the fixed March and September requirement, so verification can be done at any time within the six-month interval. The system works out the next due date from the timestamp of the last successful verification.

• No valid signal for six consecutive months. The account moves to suspense status in the central ledger, and pension payments are suspended. The SOP says it is not classed as dormant.
• A valid signal arrives. The system restores the account to active status and releases the accrued arrears, and the SOP says this needs no approval from the bank.
• An account marked dormant before 22 August 2026. The bank reactivates it when the pensioner completes biometric verification or generates a PoLC through NADRA’s system at a bank branch acting as a PoLC centre, or when a pension credit arrives from the Controller General of Accounts or the Military Accountant General from September 2026.

What a bank can and cannot ask

• No life certificate or biometrics in the ordinary course. The SOP says banks shall not collect, retain, accept or verify physical life certificates or biometric data from pensioners for their pension accounts, and shall not require them to visit a branch for it.
• Paper goes back to NADRA. A pensioner who arrives with paper documentation is to be directed to the PakID app or a designated NADRA centre, and the bank is not to collect or process the paper.
• No dormancy or debit restrictions. Banks may not place a pension account on dormant status or restrict debits because no proof of life was submitted to them.
• No charges. Pension accounts are to be kept free of service charges.

When the digital route is not possible

The SOP has a fallback for pensioners who cannot generate a PoLC at all because they have no digital access, are of extreme advanced age or have a debilitating medical condition, and for family pension cases where marital status is not up to date in NADRA’s records. They visit a designated District Accounts Office or a pension facilitation centre under the Controller General of Accounts or the Military Accountant General, where authorised staff upload the papers. Banks are prohibited from accepting these forms.

Form	What the SOP calls it
Form-10	The manual life certificate.
Form-11	A certificate for pensioners who live abroad but receive their pension in Pakistan.
Form-12	A non-marriage or re-marriage declaration. Family pensioners whose pension depends on marital status submit it to the Accountant General or District Accounts Officer as required.

If something goes wrong

• The fingerprints will not verify. Our guide to Pak ID fingerprint failures sets out NADRA’s own steps, including the appointment option added in release 5.7.6. The SOP’s fallback names lack of digital access, extreme advanced age and debilitating medical conditions and does not mention fingerprint failure, so ask the facilitation centre whether it applies.
• Your CNIC is not in the pensioners’ list. NADRA told Dawn to contact the department concerned, because the list comes from the pension authorities.
• Someone asks you to pay. NADRA says the certificate is free for pensioners. It told Dawn that certain elements were misleading pensioners and urged them to ignore such rumours, and asked for complaints to go to its helpline, the nearest NADRA office or an e-Sahulat centre.
• An operational problem with the system. The SOP tells banks to direct pensioners to the designated facilitation cells of the Controller General of Accounts or the Military Accountant General, and says unresolved operational issues go to the Finance Division through the State Bank or those offices.

NADRA also says it now sends the pension controllers a daily notice when the death of a primary or secondary pensioner is reported through the Death Notification Tool by a health facility or registered through its civil registration system. Our death certificate guide explains that registration.

What we could not confirm

• How long a certificate stays valid. NADRA has not published a validity period. The six months in the SOP is the pension rule for how often to verify.
• Provincial and private pensions. The SOP names provincial offices only for adoption after integration, and NADRA’s register for other organisations is planned. Ask your pension office what it accepts.
• What the app shows today. We did not run the app, so we cannot say whether the fee line still appears or what the certificate looks like.
• The Projects page. NADRA’s page for its Digital Proof of Life project says the service is operational in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, which does not match the nationwide release. Its statistics table is headed Biometric Verification (Million) but lists 37,879 for 2024 and 25,410 for 2025, so we do not repeat those figures as millions.
• The earlier procedure. We did not read the 7 September 2026 SOP or the earlier ones, only that the 18 September SOP replaces them.

Common mistakes

• Taking a paper life certificate to the bank. The SOP tells the bank to send you to NADRA.
• Waiting for March or September. The fixed months are abolished. Any time within the six-month interval is fine.
• Paying for a free service. NADRA says the certificate is free of charge for pensioners.
• Letting six months pass. Payments are suspended until a valid verification arrives, and arrears follow only after it.
• Expecting a relative to verify on your behalf. The guideline verifies the applicant’s own face and fingerprints.
• Following instructions from before 18 September 2026. The SOP of that date replaced every earlier procedure on the subject.

Sources: the free certificate, the channels, the family member option, the National Pensioners Register and the death notices from NADRA’s release of 21 August 2026; the app steps from NADRA’s Proof of Life Certificate user guideline, 14 November 2025, on its Downloads page; the project and the Pak ID service list from NADRA’s Projects page; the verification interval, the suspense rule, the bank rules, the fallback forms and the coverage from the Ministry of Finance’s revised SOP for Digital Proof of Life and Pension Disbursement of 18 September 2026; the launch date, the usage figures and NADRA’s statements on the pensioners’ list and on rumours from Dawn, 20 September 2026 and Dawn, 22 August 2026. All read between 3 and 5 October 2026. NADRA and the Finance Division can change these without notice.

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