This anxiety is especially pronounced for Pashtun people like Gulzar. Pashtuns account for the majority of blocked CNICs — 63% in 2017 — despite accounting for just 15% of Pakistan’s population. The Pashtun community has historically lived in southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, an area long unsettled by war and displacement and once again making worldwide headlines for those same reasons. It is unclear what your legal rights are if NADRA blocks your card, but many Pakistani Pashtuns fear being categorized as Afghan refugees and forcibly sent across the border, to a country they have never lived in.