PEF Suspends Payments for Thousands of Students Over Failed NADRA B-Form Verification

The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has withheld payments linked to thousands of students enrolled in its partner schools after their B-Forms failed verification through the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). PEF has labeled these unverified enrollments as fake and given licensed schools until August 20 to re-verify the affected students through NADRA. Payments will resume only after successful verification.

What Happened

The Punjab Education Foundation has paused payments for a large number of students studying in its partner schools across the province. The decision came after their B-Forms — the child registration document issued by NADRA — could not be matched or confirmed in NADRA's records during a routine verification check.

According to PEF officials, any enrollment that fails this NADRA check is not treated as valid. Instead, it is officially marked as a fake enrollment, which automatically blocks the release of funds tied to that student's record.

Why PEF Is Taking This Step

PEF partners with thousands of low-cost private schools across Punjab and releases per-student stipends to these institutions based on verified enrollment data. B-Form verification through NADRA acts as the foundation's primary check to confirm that a student genuinely exists and is correctly enrolled, before any public money is disbursed.

When B-Forms cannot be verified, PEF has no reliable way to confirm the student's identity or enrollment status. To prevent misuse of funds and ensure payments only go toward genuine, verifiable students, the foundation has frozen disbursements linked to all unverified cases until the records are corrected.

What Schools Need to Do

PEF has directed all licensed partner schools with affected students to take the following steps before the deadline:

• Identify every student whose B-Form verification failed
• Resubmit or correct the student's B-Form details through NADRA
• Complete the re-verification process for each flagged student
• Ensure updated records are reflected before the cutoff date

Deadline: August 20

Licensed schools have been given a firm deadline of August 20 to complete the NADRA re-verification process for all affected students. Schools that fail to verify their students within this window risk continued non-payment for those enrollments.

When Will Payments Resume?

PEF officials have made it clear that outstanding payments will only be released once a student is successfully verified through NADRA. There is no alternate route or manual override mentioned by officials — verification through NADRA remains the sole condition for unlocking withheld funds.

What This Means for Parents and Schools

For schools, this is a time-sensitive administrative task that directly affects their PEF funding. Delays in verification will mean continued delays in receiving stipends for the affected students.

For parents, it's worth checking with their child's school to confirm whether their enrollment record is among those flagged, since an unresolved B-Form issue could affect their child's continued eligibility for PEF-supported education.