Fact-check: Has Nadra changed the process for getting a B-Form made?

A story that has accumulated thousands of interactions on social media claims the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has changed the process for obtaining a child registration certificate in Pakistan.

From January 2024, parents will only be issued a child registration certificate, also known as the B-Form, for children under the age of seven, the online posts suggest.

The claim is false. No such changes have been made.

Claim

On December 6, a Facebook user posted a one-minute and four-second video in Pashto, where the narrator urged Pakistani parents to get their children’s B-Forms made before December 31, 2023.

“A notification has been issued by NADRA that the process of getting a child’s B-Form is being changed from next year,” the voiceover can be heard saying.

An accompanying caption with the video read: “All parents must make the B-Form or birth certificate of their child before December 31, 2023, because a new law is being introduced in 2024.”

The video has been viewed over 100,000 times on Facebook.

Another Facebook user shared a similar claim adding that from 2024, birth certificates will only be issued to children under the age of seven.

The post had been shared over 640 times and liked 38 times, at the time of writing.

Identical posts were shared here and here.

Fact

Nadra, the government agency that issues child registration certificates, has neither changed the process of obtaining a B-Form nor does it plan to, officials confirmed.

In a statement shared with Geo Fact Check, NADRA’s spokesperson, Rida Qazi, denied that any amendments have been made to the rules or process of getting a child registration certificate in the country.

“The claims on the internet are contrary to facts and are misleading citizens,” the statement read, adding that no deadline has been set for obtaining B-Forms either.

The claims were further rebutted by NADRA through their official social media accounts here and here.

Geo Fact Check then reached out to Shahid Akbar, the assistant director at NADRA’s tehsil office in Punjab’s Khushab. Akbar also confirmed that he has not been alerted to any changes.

The process, he added, was the same as that before. To get a B-Form issued a child’s parent must submit a copy of an updated national identity card and one parent must be present in the office to apply for the certificate.

With additional reporting by Fayyaz Hussain

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]