NADRA CNIC Verification by SMS to 7000 — What It Checks, Format & Safety (2026)

Before renting a house to a stranger, hiring domestic help, or buying something expensive from an unknown seller, Pakistanis have long used one quick check: NADRA's SMS identity verification. You send a CNIC number by text message and NADRA's system replies whether that CNIC is genuine, and whose name it belongs to. This guide explains the documented 7000 service, exactly what its reply contains — and is honest about one thing upfront: the service is documented on official government (Punjab Police) pages and in NADRA's own statements reported in the press, but NADRA's current website does not publish its tariff, so treat the charges below as the historically documented ones and confirm from your network if cost matters.

1. The SMS format — CNIC number, nothing else

Open your messaging app, type the 13-digit CNIC number with no dashes and no spaces — nothing else in the message, no keyword, no name — and send it to 7000. That is the entire format documented for this NADRA service: the number itself is the query. Send it from a SIM registered in Pakistan, and make sure you have a few rupees of balance, because unlike free government codes this verification has historically been a paid SMS (documented at Rs 10 plus tax per message in NADRA/police sources).

2. What the reply tells you

If the CNIC is valid, the automated reply confirms it and returns the card holder's name and father's name, in Urdu. Compare both spellings with the physical card (or its photocopy) the person showed you — a genuine card with a copied number will not match the name NADRA returns. If the number is not in NADRA's database, the reply says the card is fake/not found, which is your signal to stop the dealing and, for rentals and hiring, to inform your local police station as the police guidance pages themselves advise.

3. When this check is genuinely useful

The classic uses, all from the official guidance that introduced the service: verifying a tenant before signing a rent agreement, a domestic worker or driver before they start, a seller before paying a large advance for a vehicle or plot file, and checking a found/lost CNIC before returning it. It answers exactly one question — "is this CNIC real, and in whose name?" It does not give address, photo, family details or criminal record; any website or person claiming to sell those from a CNIC number is either lying or breaking the law.

4. If the SMS gets no reply

Check the obvious first: 13 digits, no dashes, sent to exactly 7000, with balance available. If it still fails, do not keep retrying daily — confirm the service's current status with NADRA directly on its verified helpline 1777 (or 051-111-786-100) before relying on it, because SMS services and tariffs are revised over time. For your own identity documents — renewal, a lost card, corrections — the official route is NADRA's Pak ID website/app, which handles applications for your own CNIC after proper login and verification.

5. Safety rules around CNIC checks

A CNIC number is sensitive personal data. Verify a number when you have a legitimate reason (a dealing with that person), never post anyone's CNIC publicly, and never type your own CNIC into third-party "CNIC information" websites or apps — those databases are scraped, often wrong, and a common front for fraud, as explained in our online fraud safety guide. The checks that are safe and official include this SMS service, the SIMs-on-your-CNIC check in our SIM verification guide, and NADRA's own helpline 1777.