MANSEHRA: Residents have complained about a long delay in the issuance of passports and urged the prime minister to intervene for the early passport issuance to protect their foreign jobs.

“My entire family is ready to go to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, but a long delay in the delivery of our passports has emerged as a big hurdle,” resident Mohammad Nawaz Awan told reporters here.

Mr Awan, along with passport applicants, said despite receiving a high fee the directorate general immigration and passports was delaying issuing passports for the last seven months.

“We have repeatedly been visiting here to collect our passports but officials have been giving more and more dates,” he said.

Insist foreign jobs at risk

The other applicants said many deadlines set for the delivery of passports had passed, but passports were still awaited.

“I have to travel abroad for work but can’t fly because my passport hasn’t been issued to me for the last seven months. If I don’t get the passport within a week, the time fixed by my overseas employer for showing up will pass depriving me of the promised job,” resident Abu Bakar said.

He said the passport delivery dates were revised many times, but to no avail.

“The prime minister should step in to ensure the immediate passport issuance,” he said.

A staff member of the regional passport office told Dawn that the Directorate General (Immigration and Passports) should be asked about delays in passport delivery as his office processed applications immediately after receiving them.

“We process passport applications in front of applicants,” he said.

FOREST ALLOTMENT OPPOSED: A jirga on Monday opposed the allotment of local forests to the wildlife department.

“The government wants to occupy the natural resources owned by the local community for centuries but we’ll never let that happen and will take to the streets against it,” chairman of Dor Mera tehsil council Shahzamin Khan Azizwani told reporters after the jirga in Oghi here.

The jirga was attended by elders of Torghar’s Hassanzai, Akazai, Nusratkhel, Basikhel and Madakhel tribes.

Mr Azizwani said the residents had been facing issues since the government declared Torghar a settled district in 2011.

He said the government earlier tried to declare those forests protective ones to hand them over to the forest department but the move was challenged in the Abbottabad Circuit Bench of the Peshawar High Court in 2014.

“The forests secretary visited Torghar the other day and announced the annexing of the local forests with the wildlife department, causing unrest among local tribesmen,” he said.

The local body head said tribesmen depended on those forests for firewood and building houses.

“If forests are handed over to the wildlife department, we won’t be able to even graze our cattle and sheep there,” he said.

Mr Azizwani said those forests fell in the community land category of the revenue department, so the government should avoid snatching them from the residents.

“We’ll petition the Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench and take to the streets against the government’s move,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024