Islamabad, Aug 28: Over 500,000 applicants are affected by the Passport and Immigration Department’s severe passport issuance delays. Millions of dollars have been paid in fees, while delays of up to two months are experienced for both regular and urgent passport applications.
Even though the government can only handle 25,000 passports each day, it is overloaded with 50,000 applications every day amid deteriorating economic conditions.
Only expedited passports are currently being granted, costing between 20,000 and 27,000 rupees, and they arrive in less than a week. Passport ink and lamination paper problems were the cause of earlier delays, but those problems have already been fixed.The department’s production capacity, however, is still insufficient to fulfill the huge demand. Mustafa Jamal Qazi, the Director General of Passport and Immigration, declared that the advanced printing machine tenders are almost finished, and the new machinery should be delivered by October.
The requirement for specialist technology with greater security features and rigorous regulatory compliance caused a delay in the acquisition of these devices. Qazi expressed assurance that the new equipment’s arrival will solve the present backlog in passport processing.
