LAHORE, October 8, 2026 — The Lahore High Court has directed the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to correct the Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number of a male citizen who was mistakenly assigned an identification number containing a digit designated for women.
In a written judgment, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ordered NADRA to issue a correctly gender-coded CNIC number to a citizen named Sajid, while upholding the earlier decisions of the civil and sessions courts.
LHC Orders NADRA to Correct CNIC Number
According to the judgment, NADRA’s identification system uses the final digit of a CNIC number to distinguish between male and female citizens. Numbers ending in 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 are assigned to men, while numbers ending in 2, 4, 6 or 8 are assigned to women.
The dispute originated from a registration error dating back to 2010, when Sajid’s father submitted his details to NADRA. According to the authority’s position presented before the court, the father mistakenly marked the applicant’s gender as female instead of male on the registration form.
Consequently, NADRA initially issued Sajid an identity card reflecting the wrong gender.
The citizen subsequently approached NADRA seeking correction of his identification record. His lawyer informed the court that NADRA eventually corrected the gender entry to male but did not change the identification number, which still ended with a digit designated for female citizens.
The discrepancy prompted legal proceedings, with the civil court and sessions court ruling in favour of the citizen and directing NADRA to make the necessary correction.
NADRA challenged those decisions before the Lahore High Court.
Court Upholds Lower Courts’ Decisions
After examining the matter, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani upheld the lower courts’ findings and concluded that no illegality had been established in their decisions.
The High Court emphasised that NADRA has a legal obligation to maintain accurate records in its national identity database and ensure that information appearing on citizens’ identification documents is correct.
The judgment further stated that the authority’s existing database arrangements could not become an obstacle to correcting an identity card.
The court consequently directed NADRA to issue Sajid an identification number consistent with his corrected male gender entry.
Deputy Attorney General Raja Khurram Shahzad also presented arguments during the proceedings.
The ruling highlights the responsibility of national registration authorities to rectify administrative errors and maintain consistency between citizens’ personal information and their official identification numbers.