Reading NADRA's CNIC, NICOP & POC Barcodes
NADRA's CNIC (Computerized National Identity Card), NICOP (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) and POC (Pakistan Origin Card) contain a 2D barcode. This 2D barcode contains a lot of information about the card bearer.
This 2D barcode is built over an ISO standard. This barcode can be read by a 2D barcode reader device made for this purpose or by processing the image of scanned copy of the card. I don't know how, but someone managed to put an ad of a CNIC reader, with NADRA written on it, online on OLX (http://karachi.olx.com.pk/bar-code-reader-nadra-iid-261512018). One can easily find barcode readers for this ISO standard on alibaba or ebay for 150USD - 300USD. Here is the information encoded in the barcode:
- Receipt number (Parchi Number) which includes timestamp of your visit to NADRA's office
- CNIC Number
- Family Number (Khandan Number)
- Date of Birth
After this there is some gibberish which I was able to decode easily. This encoded information contains following information in Urdu:
- Full Name
- Father's Name
- Full Address with District and Tehsil information
I did this decoding only for research/educational purposes. I am not sure if its legal or not, so I am not publishing decoding details here.
What is the utility?
- Healthcare: Patient comes with his CNIC, receptionist scans the card and all history/lab reports are available immediately.
- Security: We normally see a guard at the entrance of corporate offices or some residential areas sitting with a register in his hand, writing down name/address of all visitors. We can reduce the time and effort of this whole process.
- Anywhere else, where user's information is entered manually.
Update: Removed the barcode standard name.
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