Delays in passports

Aquarter of a million Pakistanis are still waiting for their passports to be issued. Out of the 16 lamination machines that are used for passports, only 11 are currently functioning, leading to a massive backlog. Another six machines are being imported from Germany and it is expected that they will arrive in a few weeks. Until then, however, the number of people awaiting passports is likely to rise and there is still no guarantee that the new machines will solve the crisis. At least 15,000-20,000 people apply for a passport daily, most of whom will not be getting this essential travel document in the 15 days that they are supposed to.

None of the competent authorities seem to be aware if anyone will know how to operate these new machines, or even if they will work at all. The out-of-order machines have been non-functional for many months now and there seem to have been no attempts to fix them. Even worse, there is a feud going on between the National Database Registration Authority and the Directorate of Immigration in Islamabad as to who is to blame for the passport delays. An investigation needs to be launched in to this immediately to find out who is responsible and also to make sure that citizens start getting their passports on time as soon as is feasible.

If stopping people from travelling abroad was not bad enough, the passport fiasco is also likely to have a negative impact on Pakistan’s economy. With so many Pakistanis unable to take up jobs abroad simply because they couldn’t get their passport on time, there will surely be a drop in remittances in this and the next quarter. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, which had been dwindling for many years, were only recently shored up by remittances. The inexplicable passport delays may lead to a reversal of that trend. Apart from that, getting a passport is a basic right of all Pakistanis, one that is being violated by these delays.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2011.