KARACHI, Jan 1: More than 300 agents, who gather around the passport office in Saddar daily, are fleecing applicants although they have no role in the processing of the machine-readable passports. The administration had removed their tables, chairs and benches several times in the past. However, just a few days after every operation, they re-emerge there and resume swindling the naïve applicants.
Some have worn-out furniture -– stools, chairs, benches and tables -– whereas many others set up their “makeshift offices” on the seats of the motorcycles either belonging to them or visitors.
Many of them just roam around the passport office brandishing bank vouchers and enticing people to have their application processed “quickly’, although they are not even allowed to enter the passport office premises.
An applicant told Dawn that he gave Rs200 to an agent to get his application processed quickly. “The agent did nothing but to fill the bank voucher with my name and computerized national identity card number. Then he asked me to deposit the fee and I could never see him again,” he said.
The applicant said the guard inside the passport office guided him to a customer service counter, where an attendant politely briefed him on the procedure.
Another applicant, who had his application processed himself, said the entire procedure was so simple and smooth that even an illiterate person could go through it very easily.
Sources told Dawn that the passport office had written letters to the city government, the home department and police for the removal of passport agents. “However, the authorities have yet to take an action against them,” they added.
The director of the passport office, Kher Mohammed, said there was absolutely no need for any assistance from anybody for moving application for the machine readable passport as the process was so simple. “The applicants are no longer required to bring their photos and unnecessary documents. Only original computerized national identity card is a must for the MRP,” he added.
He said the applicants who were holding valid or expired manual passports were, however, required to bring along their manual passports for the insertion of old passports’ numbers in the MRPs and in the database.
The officials said there were token counters where customer services assistant gave token numbers to the applicants and guided them to the waiting areas.
After obtaining the token numbers, they said, the applicants were put into the open queue by the computer. On his turn, the applicant goes to the biometric counter where his fingerprints are captured. Then the applicant moves to photo counter where photograph is taken. After this, the applicant appears before the data entry counter where his personal data is entered.
They said the passport office in Saddar was issuing MRPs to the applicants from districts South, Central, West and Malir, while its outlet at Awami Markaz was catering to applicants from District East.
The officials said separate sections were set up in Saddar passport office for applicants from districts South and Central, and one section was designated for the applicants from districts West and Malir. A separate section is functional exclusively for government employees and senior citizens.
They said that now the new system had been streamlined fully after overcoming certain teething problems with the passage of time. “Nobody can get his application processed out of turn,” they said adding that with the introduction of the MRPs, the possibility of issuance of a fake passport was “almost zero”.
KARACHI, Jan 1: More than 300 agents, who gather around the passport office in Saddar daily, are fleecing applicants although they have no role in the processing of the machine-readable passports. The administration had removed their tables, chairs and benches several times in the past. However, just a few days after every operation, they re-emerge there and resume swindling the naïve applicants.
