NADRA chairperson Tariq Malik made this announcement on Friday.
Malik clarified that while there was no law requiring women to seek their husband's permission to update their CNICs after marriage, it was an unofficial policy of the NADRA whereby married women were required to enter their husband's name.
"We are abolishing this policy and women can now register themselves with their father's or husband's name as they please," he said. Malik expressed these views during the concluding session of the 14th Annual Rural Women Conference.
The NADRA chairperson further said that a gender bias was noticed in the NADRA registration policy in addition to an algorithmic bias in its software. He added that both these issues were being duly addressed.
Misreporting
Meanwhile, a section of media misrepresented the aforementioned development and it was reported that NADRA has now allowed women not to change their surname after marriage. However, such a policy was never in place and women who did not want to take their husband's name as their surname were free to exercise their choice by not changing their names on the CNIC after marriage. What was previously required of women after marriage was entering their husband's name in the field where unmarried women are supposed to enter their father's name.
With this policy being abolished, women will no longer have to get their husbands' name added to their ID card after marriage.