ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -
Elderly men wait patiently, carefully combing their hennaed beards,
while a guitar-playing student entertains the long queue of Pakistanis
lined-up to be photographed, fingerprinted and questioned inside a
crowded office in the capital Islamabad. 
This is the unlikely setting
for possibly one of Pakistan's few success stories - a massive increase
in citizens signing up for government identity cards.Such
things rarely top the agenda of a deeply unpopular government, crippled
by daily power cuts, a Taliban insurgency and massive corruption. 
But
bureaucrats say the successful ID registration has dramatically cut the
number of ghost voters and is assisting in the distribution of cash
payments for the poor and displaced. 
"The
database has brought a lot of transparency. We signed up so many
people," said Tariq Malik, the 44-year-old chairman of the National
Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
During
elections five years ago, less than half of Pakistani adults had a
government-issued ID. Now 91 percent have the plastic green cards, said
Malik, who previously worked as a county technology officer in Michigan
in the United States.
It is hard to verify such a high rate of registration as Pakistan's census data is many years out of date.
Malik
said registration spiked after the cards were required for poor
Pakistanis to qualify for cash payments from the government.
However, some families, while grateful for the cash, say the flow of aid is sporadic.
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