Passport is the most important document of any country which is the basic right of every citizen to use it to perform Hajj and Umrah as well as for foreign tours and employment or higher education but form two years citizens and students including Khyber going abroad are facing difficulties due to delay in obtaining passport.
Against that situation the youth is protesting all over the country. In this regard the Ministry of Interior has repeatedly explained but the problem is not being resolved. Currently the government has the obstacle in issuing readable and e-passports to thousands of people in different parts of the country. Despite having a tender and order to buy a printing machine equipped with new modern technology, the Finance Division has not released the amount of 2 billion 9 million rupees to the Passport and Immigration Department which is being claimed.
According to a well-known website, more than 800,000 people across the country, including Lahore are facing difficulties for not getting passports, while already this number has exceeded 1500,000.
Passport and Immigration collected 50 to 51 billion rupees in revenue to the exchequer but when this organization needed to buy a printing machine equipped with the latest technology to provide timely passports to thousands of people, the government did not release the amount. Although for buying the printing machine equipped with this modern technology all the legal requirements were fulfilled, the tender was done then the order was also issued to the company but due to lack of money the machinery could not be purchased.
Moreover the government has imposed a ban on imports and is not allowing to buy even the necessary items. The passport office is earning a revenue of 51 billion rupees but money is not being given to him to buy the machine. Currently, 72,000 to 75,000 passport applications are collected across the country including Lahore but Passport and Immigration can only make 22,000 passports.
The data of 53,000 people are being fed daily, who have submitted billions of rupees as a fee but getting them a passport on time has remained a dream. According to reports, when the Director General of Passport and Immigration Mustafa Jamal Qazi was contacted in this regard he said that they are trying their best to update them this month or next month to Succeed in purchasing technology-equipped printing machines. After a lot of effort passports were issued to .8 million people out of 1.5 million but more requests came in. He said that the Finance Division has been requested again to purchase the machines. Release the money so that people can get their passports on time, the new machine will make 40 to 42 thousand passports daily which will do double printing. If the passport machine is available next month then all the people will get their passports by November December. Now the government will know how much more citizens have to wait. It is the responsibility of the interior ministry that instead of taking heavy fees from the citizens, services should also be provided to them according to international standards so that they do not have to face deportation. It is hoped that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi will take immediate notice of this important issue and issue orders so that citizens and women can be saved from being stressed in passport offices.
Meanwhile the second biggest problem in these passport offices is that, booths are less and the rush is more thus the women and children who come to process their passports are facing difficulties. Therefore it is important that not only the process of purchasing a new readable machine will be completed soon to ensure the speedy delivery of passports but practical steps will also be taken to reduce the rush.
