The interior ministry is improving passport offices, making them efficient, corruption-free and user friendly
This refers to a letter by Naeem Sadiq appearing in The Express Tribune titled “Passports for the rich”.
The contents of the letter, besides reflecting the sincerity of the writer towards overall improvement of the system, also suggests that the writer is not aware of the series of steps that the Passport Directorate has recently taken, under the guidance of the interior minister, to eliminate corruption and the mafia, streamline the entire system and to minimise, to the maximum possible extent, inconveniences that were being faced by the applicants. First, the interior minister taking strong notice of various complaints regarding mafias, ordered the DG, Immigration and Passports, to launch a crackdown against touts stationed outside passport offices and also instructed the management to purge the organisation internally and to take strict action against corrupt officials that collude with agents and touts.
It is a matter of record that hundreds of touts and agents were apprehended during this campaign and this exercise will continue. Secondly, to save the applicants from the hassles of long queues in the submission of the passport fee, the Passport Directorate not only authorised all branches of the National Bank of Pakistan to collect passport fees, but mobile fee payment through MobiCash retailers’ shops and Upaisa has also been introduced. Third, the whole purpose of the establishment of passport offices in every district of the country, including NADRA mega centres and executive passport offices in various cities, is to facilitate the applicants and reduce the time span that is normally required in the submission of passport applications. Contrary to the assumption of the writer, the newly established executive passport offices are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for the general public and aim to bring to an end the so-called VIP culture.
The idea here is to try and treat all applicants as VIPs. Fourth, the Passport Directorate has recently launched an interactive voice response (IVR) service to enable applicants to trace their applications and get information on their queries. Initially, the IVR service is being provided in English, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Saraiki, but other regional languages will also be included in the future. Fifth, the Passport Home Delivery Service has also been started so that passports are delivered to the applicants at their doorstep, safely and securely. Lastly, every possible effort is being made to take the media on board regarding the new initiatives launched in the passport office and to disseminate all relevant information using all mediums available.
The Interior Ministry looks forward and would greatly welcome feedback and suggestions aimed at further improvement of facilities at passport offices and to make the system more efficient, corruption-free and user friendly.
Sarfraz Hussain
Spokesperson,
Ministry of Interior
Published in The Express Tribune, April 16th, 2016.
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