The National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) mobile app has a confusing feature that appears to allow deceased individuals to cancel their own identity cards, somehow.
Under the app’s “Cancel Identity Due to Death” feature, users are presented with two options: one for relatives of the deceased, and another labeled “Myself.” Selecting the latter option bizarrely takes the applicant through a facial recognition “liveness check,” a process designed to confirm that the person is physically alive and matches the official record.
Somehow, a deceased person is meant to log in to their NADRA app, start an application through the “myself” option, and even complete a liveness check through facial recognition.
When contacted for clarification, a NADRA spokesperson stated that the “Cancel Identity Due to Death” service is intended solely for the relatives of the deceased. However, the spokesperson did not address why the app explicitly provides a “myself” selection for the deceased, nor why it requires a liveness check for someone presumed dead.
This is another example of poor design and oversight in critical government mobile apps, an issue that plagues several such apps in Pakistan, government or otherwise.
As of now, NADRA has not provided an explanation for the apparent contradiction, leaving open questions about whether the feature is a technical glitch, a mislabeling error, or an unaddressed flaw in the app’s design.
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Well done to the great developer.
Why can’t a dead person cancel his own CNIC? Jab teen andhay bank loot saktay hain, eik Murda insaan apna CNIC kyoon cancel nahi Karwa sakta
The government offices are filled with pure dumbheads, the likes of which you might not have seen anywhere in the world. This nation has no shortage of stone-dumbs. And this is not something a developer would do even if he is from a family of vampires. This shows the ‘Greatness’ of the Secretary of IT. Since most of these secretaries are illiterate, village dwellers who have been living under a gutter rock for ages.
23rd century technology…too advanced.
it is basics of software design. existing complete process was called in the menu.
can be easily modified in subsequent updates. no need to be hyper about it.
I had used this feature recently. The “Myself” option just means the person who is logged in on the app is the applicant. For example, when I had to cancel my father’s CNIC after he passed away, I created an account and submitted the request. Since I was the one applying, I chose “Myself”. I could also have used my same account but selected my brother as the applicant, but I don’t know much about that process. The liveness check was basically of the applicant, so the app basically took my picture and verified me as the applicant.
I get that it can be a bit confusing, but it definitely doesn’t mean the dead are supposed to cancel their own CNIC.
This flaw could not be caught both at the system architect design time and at quality control stage. This is a critical mistake.
Please read again. It’s not wrong at all Try to cancel your CNIC as dead, you’ll understand all.
Not satisfying, and confusing the death or cancel option. First verifying fingers print is taking too much time,
when state make someone dead in their records they don’t want to fix it by themselves.
As state doest want to be accountable for any mistake but ask the dead if you want you bring yourself to life.
Allah knows best.
Please have a knowledge before you post.
The whole article is based on just a lame assessment of the app. The app UI says cancel relative ID card not itself. Please see it again. Try to cancel your own CNIC as dead and you’ll understand. Read please…. You should have some standards.