The Department for Registration of Persons (DRP) has announced that all its offices — including one-day National Identity Card (NIC) services at its head office and provincial centres — will remain closed on Friday, April 17, 2026, due to a computer system breakdown.
In a statement, the Department said restoration work is under way but services will stay suspended for the day to ensure system stability once the issue is resolved.
Officials urged citizens scheduled to apply for or collect NICs on Friday to plan accordingly and to monitor official announcements for updates on when services will resume.
The closure affects the full range of public-facing operations the DRP handles, including standard NIC processing, one-day issuance, and provincial office services. The disruption comes less than two weeks after earlier reports of a system fault at the Department that prompted public warnings about related impersonation scam calls.
The DRP is one of the government agencies that processes the highest volume of walk-in public requests and is central to registration records linked to voter rolls, welfare programmes, banking, and other identity-verified services.
