KARACHI: Tariq Malik, Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), unveiled Pakistan’s new Smart National Identity Card (SNIC), Smart National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (SNICOP) and Smart Pakistan Origin Card (SPOC) design, and overt and covert features at the Eighth Symposium of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on Identity Documents, Biometrics and Security Standards.
The ICAO symposium was held at ICAO headquarters Montreal on Thursday and attended by more than 500 participants from 100 countries across the world.Tariq Malik introduced new smart ID cards rolled out by Pakistan few days ago. He said: “Pakistani smart ID cards are compliant with ICAO and ISO standards, so these should be accepted at all major international airports as secondary ID with Machine Readable Passports.”
The new smart NICOP complies with ICAO standard 9,303 Part 3 Vol.1 and is also ISO 7,816-4 compliant. Malik hoped that ICAO compliance would help Smart NICOPs to be accepted on all international airports and at points of entry and departure.The Smart NIC Card has 36 security features and is technologically the most advanced identity document in the world today.
“The introduction of smart card technology is aimed at improving security by making forgery more difficult. Now, a forger must not only modify the data printed on the face and back of ID card but also that contained in the chip to ensure that the two sets of information match. It should now restore the confidence of world on Pakistani ID cards”, said Malik.
Malik spoke on the applications of smart identity cards in relief operations, international development and humanitarian assistance. “Citizens depend on government for services and protection from risk. Safeguarding citizens from risk and providing critical services transparently is top priority of Government of Pakistan. In the last four years, government has dispersed approximately 200 billion rupees in monetary benefits transparently in humanitarian assistance and financial inclusion programmess using smart IDs and biometric verification.”
The chip set contains an arsenal of technical measures making modification not only extremely difficult but also easily detectable. Moreover, it is an instrument to be used by the Government of Pakistan to roll out egovt services powered by NADRAs National Identity System (NIS). Malik hoped that the new, revolutionary smart ID card would provide a platform to the government to move towards welfare state by providing accidental life insurance, health insurance, emergency relief, home remittance, pension disbursement and e-voting in future. The participants from various countries appreciated the design of smart card and received popularity in the symposium. – Dailytimes
