This study emphasizes on near surface observation of chemically active trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide (NO) over Islamabad on a regular basis. Absorption spectroscopy using backscattered extraterrestrial light source technique was used to retrieve NO differential slant column densities (dSCDs). Mini multi-axis-differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instrument was used to perform ground-based measurements at Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad, Pakistan. Tropospheric vertical column densities (VCDs) of NO were derived from measured dSCDs by using geometric air mass factor approach. A case study was conducted to identify the impact of different materials (glass, tinted glass, and acrylic sheet of various thicknesses used to cover the instrument) on the retrieval of dSCDs. Acrylic sheet of thickness 5 mm was found most viable option for casing material as it exhibited negligible impact in the visible wavelength range. Tropospheric NO VCD derived from ground-based mini MAX-DOAS measurements exceeded two times the Pak-NEQS levels and showed a reasonable comparison (r = 0.65, r = 0.81) with satellite observations (root mean square bias of 39 %) over Islamabad, Pakistan.