LAHORE: This refers to your editorial of April 20 regarding corruption at the passport offices. It was finally the caretakers who ensured that the necessary laminated paper required for the issuance of passports was made available to citizens of Pakistan, who having paid Rs5,000 for an urgent passport and had to wait for months to get what should not have taken more than a few weeks. I visited the local passport regional office located near Barkat Market, Garden Town, Lahore, for the issuance of my son’s passport and was delighted that while there was a lot of rush at the office, citizens were catered to by turn.
However, while corrupt practices seem to have been contained at the passport office, the shocking experience was that payment of fees at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), New Garden Town Branch, could only be done through agents charging Rs200 per challan. I believe that the NBP staff is directly involved with agents and this is all done in the presence of law-enforcement agencies. There is only one cashier deputed to collect the passport application fees, and he rarely caters to those standing in line for hours in the scorching summer heat because he is busy obliging agents, from whom he gets a commission. Why should the fee for issuance of passports not be payable at other banks as well so that the monopolistic role of the NBP does not become an inconvenience for the public?
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2013.
