NADRA e-Sahulat Franchises: What You Can Pay and Get Done There

A NADRA e-Sahulat franchise is a private shop running NADRA's payment software. It takes utility bills at no charge, collects government fees such as Punjab land record and arms licence payments, sends domestic money transfers through HBL, verifies a CNIC, and since January 2026 renews CNICs and reprints lost ones at selected outlets for NADRA's fee plus a reported Rs 100. It is not a NADRA office and not a bank.

Walk down any bazaar street in Pakistan and you will pass a shop with a green and white NADRA e-Sahulat board above a mobile phone counter. Most people use it once a month to pay the electricity bill and never ask what else it does. That is a waste, because the same counter can pay a university fee, send cash to a village, pull a land record fard, and now save you a trip to a NADRA office.

The network is big. NADRA's own e-Sahulat site described 17,000 active franchises processing an average of 12.5 million transactions a month, and reporting in January 2026 put the count at 22,000, of which more than 9,500 have fingerprint and camera equipment. One caution before anything else: the official e-Sahulat website refused every request we made on 17 September 2026, so the figures from it are from its archived pages, and we say so where it matters.

What is NADRA e-Sahulat, and who runs it?

e-Sahulat is a prepaid collection and payment platform built by NADRA and operated by its subsidiary, NADRA Technologies Limited. Each franchise is owned by a private shopkeeper who deposits money with NADRA in advance and then spends that credit on your behalf, earning a commission on every transaction.

NADRA lists the partners whose fees or records flow through the network: the Punjab Land Record Authority, the Punjab Arms Licence Authority, the Islamabad and Punjab excise departments, the Ministry of Housing and FBR. On the money side it names a 1Link partnership for cash in and cash out and 1,500 billers, and HBL for domestic remittance.

Because of that 1Link and HBL plumbing, people search for "NADRA branchless banking". The phrase is fair as a description and wrong as a category. e-Sahulat has no account, no wallet and no card. It moves money for you across a counter, which is what an agent does, not what a bank does.

What can you pay or get done at an e-Sahulat franchise?

Utility bills, mobile top ups and scratch cards, domestic money transfers, government fees, university fees, charity donations, CNIC verification, EOBI pension collection, and at selected outlets CNIC renewal and lost card reprints. The list below is what NADRA's own site advertised, plus the 2026 additions.

The bill counter is the workhorse. NADRA's Customers page described the switch behind it collecting bill data from 27 utility companies, around 52 million consumer records a month, and the same switch serves banks and Easypaisa, which is why a bill paid anywhere shows up the same way. If you would rather see the amount first, checking your electricity bill online in Pakistan takes a minute on the company's own portal before you walk to the shop.

How does paying a bill at e-Sahulat work, and what does it cost?

Hand over the bill or give the consumer number, check the amount and due date the operator reads back, pay in cash, and take the printed receipt. NADRA says there is no fee for depositing a utility bill at a franchise, and asks you to report a shop that charges one.

1. Bring the bill, or at least the consumer number or reference number printed on it.
2. The operator enters the number and the system pulls the bill: consumer name, amount and due date.
3. Read those three things on the screen or the slip before paying. A wrong consumer number pays somebody else's bill, and reversing that takes weeks.
4. Pay the exact amount. After the due date, the amount on the system already includes the late surcharge.
5. Take the receipt. NADRA's process says a receipt is issued on every successful payment, and it is your only proof if the payment does not post.
6. Keep the receipt until the next bill shows the payment as received.

On charges, NADRA's FAQ is blunt: no fee upon depositing a utility bill at an e-Sahulat franchise, and if a franchise asks for one, complain to info@esahulat.com.pk or 051-90391757 with the shop's address. The same numbers handle a payment that was made but shows as arrears on the next bill; NADRA asks for the consumer number, deposit date, amount and franchise address.

Money transfers and the newer CNIC services are different: those carry charges. NADRA's archived pages do not publish a remittance tariff, and for the CNIC services the Rs 100 service charge on top of NADRA's own fee is reported by ProPakistani from NADRA's announcement, not something we read on a NADRA page.

Which NADRA services moved to e-Sahulat in 2026?

Renewal of an expired CNIC and reprint of a lost one, at selected franchises with biometric equipment, from a pilot that began on 1 January 2026 with 18 outlets in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi. Reporting since then puts the network at more than 2,000 outlets in February and a NADRA list of over 3,000 by the end of March.

The mechanics, as reported from NADRA's announcement: you give your CNIC number, the operator verifies you against the photograph and fingerprints NADRA already holds, and the application goes in under NADRA's prescribed fee plus Rs 100 for the franchise. A NADRA officer is stationed at each pilot site. No police report is needed for a lost card. The card itself is printed and delivered by NADRA as usual, so a renewal at a shop counter is tracked the same way as one from a centre, and NADRA CNIC tracking covers that.

The 24NewsHD report of 29 March 2026 listed a wider menu at those franchises: CNIC issuance and renewal, B forms for children under 10, and cancellation of a deceased person's CNIC. We could not read NADRA's own release, since nadra.gov.pk also returned an error to us, so treat the exact menu at your local shop as something to ask about rather than assume.

Whatever the franchise charges on top, the NADRA fee underneath is the same as at a centre. Those fees, by document and by normal, urgent and executive track, are set out in NADRA fees for every document.

How is e-Sahulat different from a NADRA centre or a JazzCash agent?

A NADRA registration centre is NADRA's own office and issues everything: first CNICs, modifications, family and child certificates, passports in some buildings. An e-Sahulat franchise is a shop on NADRA software that mainly takes payments, with a short CNIC menu at selected outlets. A JazzCash agent is an agent of Mobilink Microfinance Bank and works through your mobile wallet, which e-Sahulat does not have.

The practical difference is the wallet. At a JazzCash agent your money usually goes into or out of a JazzCash account, which is convenient if you have one and a nuisance if you do not; linking a bank account with a JazzCash wallet makes the agent almost unnecessary. At e-Sahulat there is no account to open. You hand over cash, the operator makes the payment, you get a receipt. For a parent paying a student's fee, or an older relative who will never install an app, that is the point.

How do you find the nearest e-Sahulat franchise?

Use NADRA's Where To Pay locator at esahulat.nadra.gov.pk, choose your district and tehsil from the lists, type the captcha, and it returns the franchises in that tehsil with addresses. NADRA's helpline for the network is 051-90392100, and its franchise desk is 051-90391757.

The locator was the one part of the e-Sahulat system that answered us on 17 September 2026. Its district list runs to 130 entries, from Abbottabad to Ziarat, including Azad Kashmir districts such as Mirpur and Bagh, so the coverage is national even where NADRA's own centres are thin.

The list does not tell you which outlets offer the CNIC services. For that, the reported NADRA list of March 2026 is the reference, and a phone call to the shop before you go saves a wasted trip, because the biometric kit is at fewer than half the franchises.

Common questions about NADRA e-Sahulat

Is e-Sahulat a NADRA office?

No. It is a privately owned franchise running NADRA Technologies' software. It cannot issue a first CNIC or change your details, though selected outlets now renew and reprint cards.

Does e-Sahulat charge for paying a bill?

Not according to NADRA, whose FAQ says there is no fee for depositing a utility bill and gives 051-90391757 for complaints against a shop that asks for one.

Can I renew my CNIC at e-Sahulat?

At selected franchises with biometric equipment, yes, under a pilot that began on 1 January 2026 and has grown to more than 3,000 outlets according to reporting. The charge is NADRA's fee plus a reported Rs 100.

Is e-Sahulat the same as branchless banking?

Not quite. It moves money over the counter through HBL and 1Link, but it has no account, wallet or card of its own.

What if my bill payment did not post?

Take the receipt, the consumer number, the date and the shop's address to NADRA on 051-90391757 or info@esahulat.com.pk, which is the route NADRA's FAQ gives.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 17 September 2026. The official e-Sahulat website at e-sahulat.nadra.gov.pk and nadra.gov.pk both returned 403 Forbidden to every request we made that day, so we read the Internet Archive's copies of the e-Sahulat pages and say so above: the home page as captured on 17 April 2025 for the 17,000 franchise figure, the 12.5 million monthly transactions, the partner list, the 1Link and HBL arrangements and the EOBI pension service; the Bill Payment page captured the same day for the companies covered and the payment process; the FAQ page captured on 26 November 2024 for the no fee rule on utility bills, the complaint contacts, the no licence fee rule and eligibility; the Fee Collection and Customers pages captured on 16 January 2024 for the Virtual University process and the 27 utility companies. We read the live e-Sahulat portal at esahulat.nadra.gov.pk for the Where To Pay locator and its Naya Pakistan Housing instructions, including the Rs 250 fee. The CNIC pilot of 1 January 2026, its 18 outlets, the Rs 100 service charge and the 22,000 franchise count are reported by ProPakistani citing NADRA; the expansion to 2,000 outlets and the no FIR rule by ProPakistani on 10 February 2026; the list of over 3,000 outlets and the wider menu by 24NewsHD on 29 March 2026; and NADRA Technologies Limited as operator by The Nation on 2 January 2026. We could not read NADRA's own media release on the pilot. Money transfer charges and CNIC verification charges at the counter are not published on any page we read and are not stated here.