ISLAMABAD, March 28: National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) on Monday started printing of an additional column of religion in machine readable passports, a source in the authority told Dawn. The source said a few hundred passports with the column of religion in them were printed on Monday. However, Nadra has a capacity to print 6,000 such passports in a day.

The source said new software had been developed for the purpose. The columns of religion in these passports were filled with the help of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) which already had information about the applicants’ religion.

The printing of MRPs with the additional column would be formally announced either by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao or the director-general of Nadra, the source said.

As for the MRPs which had been issued before the decision to restore the religion column in the passports were taken, the authority had decided that it would use different rubber stamps to endorse them on these passports according to the applicants’ religion.