Over 300,000 wait for passports
– File Photo
ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed on Wednesday that the backlog of passport applications in the country had crossed the 300,000 mark.
The Director General for Immigration and Passports, Syed Wajid Hussain Bokhari, told the meeting that a delay in the release of allocated budget was the major reason for the huge backlog.
He assured the committee, led by Senator Talha Mehmood, that delayed passports could be issued within a month if the finance ministry released the budget immediately and the Security Printing Corporation (SPC) provided 25,000 booklets per day.
He said about 15,000 people applied for passport every day but the department was getting only 5,000 blank copies from the SPC and more applications would pile up if the issue was not resolved.
The DG said the passport department generated over Rs14 billion per year in revenue but was facing difficulties in getting the allocated budget released from the finance ministry.
“As a result, we have been unable to make payments to the Security Printing Corporation and it has reduced the supply of booklets from the required 15,000 to 5,000 per day.”
He complained that the finance secretary was not even giving time to discuss the release of the budget. Besides, he said, his directorate was facing manpower crunch because it had over 160 vacancies.
The committee asked the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports to differentiate parliamentarians’ passport from that of officials because they were unnecessarily asked for a no-objection certificate by the airport authorities.
The meeting expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority and observed that in the last four years the body had compiled only a research report and a documentary on Swat though it had utilised allocations worth Rs500 million.
This is outragouse i cannot believe that a Passport costs so much here you can pop down to the many offices they have waite if you like it takes a day or by reg delivery 3 days. the Gov of Pakistan id robbing its own people how can it take 90 days to get a passport?. its disgusting.
This Govt. is a braod daylight robbers. This country is doon to destruction by the hands of this unethical, dishonest, crooked and fraudulent clique of politicians.
My question to Pakistani authorities is how are the militants from Arab countries particularly Yemen able to enter Pakistan and create problems without valid papers.may be Am naive to assume that borders are not porous.
“As a result, we have been unable to make payments to the Security Printing Corporation and it has reduced the supply of booklets from the required 15,000 to 5,000 per day.”
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Sound familiar?
This is just wrong, as citizens of this Country having a valid passport is our basic right. The government is failing to provide this right to its citizens and the ministers are roaming with protocols in luxury cars. Sad state of affairs.
Can someone please update me how long does it take to renew passport with urgent and normal fees? Many thanks
I think urgent in 15 days fees 5k and normal 3 mnths fees 3k.
Thank you sidra. According to their website the processing time for urgent is 7 working days and for normal it is around 21 days. I am in a fix now should I get my passport renewed in Pakistan as I have already booked my return flight so need to be sure if my passport will be renewed before that time. Thats why I need to be sure of the processing time. If any one has more information, can you please share it.
Many thanks
Waqar
15,000 people apply for passports daily? That is some 50,000 monthly deducting holidays when offices are closed.Where are they all going? I doubt all of them are going touring overseas.I doubt there are that many jobs legally offered to the people from overseas.
not everyone who gets a passport goes overseas.
I applied for ordinary passprt on 8 October and still waiting for my passport. I got an offer from an employer in Dubai and if I don’t send scanned copy of passport till 3rd December, they will offer the position to someone else. I am going every day to passport office and inquiring about my passport and they are saying that “Lamination sheet kahtam ho gai hai 1 week bad ana”.
If you ‘pay’ them for the ‘lamination sheet’ you will get it done in a day, or within hours.
90 days for ordinary passport is simply cruel. What if you need to travel abroad for whatever reason? Paying hefty fees and still not getting passport can only be seen in ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN !!
How much a booklet costs? When an applicant applies for a passport, he/she pays Rs.3,000 for ordinary and Rs.5,000 for urgent passport applications respectively. Where does this money go? Where is the Government spending the money has is collected from the people?
The security features on the booklet actually cost quite a lot. Usually the price of the Passport is prohibitively expensive for an ordinary citizen to afford and is- in most cases- subsidized by the government.
This is wrong….even with the security features the passport booklet is not subsidized by the government. Passport issuing is not a non profit authority. It actually brings in quite a bit of revenue.
How long does the passport last for, here its 10years at the cost of £92.00.