Verification process exhausts applicants

LAHORE:

For people moving abroad for study, work or family reasons, the anxiety of leaving behind friends and family and the uncertainty of settling into a foreign land, makes the process of relocation profoundly stressful, significantly more so for emigrants in Lahore, who have to wait in long queues for hours under the scorching sun before they can finally obtain a simple verification stamp on their documents.

Every day hundreds of emigrants visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Liaison Office in Gulberg, for verifying important personal documentation like marriage, birth, divorce, character, medical, death, school and education certificates, B-form, affidavit and bank statements, which are required by foreign institutions for reviewing their immigration status.

Despite the foreign office claiming that documents requiring verification are timely returned to applicants either on the day of submission or on the following day, hundreds of men, women and elderly have to stand waiting for hours on the road outside the camp office, which has no clean drinking water arrangement, sitting area, awning installation, or restroom facility until they finally decide to empty their pockets in front of cunning agents.

Mukhtar Ali, an elderly resident from Shahdara, spotted huffing outside the Liaison Office, had been visiting the facility for two consecutive days but was still unable to get his daughter’s and grandchildren’s documentation verified. “My son-in-law lives in Saudi Arabia and would like his wife and children to move to the country with him. Therefore, I have to get my daughter’s marriage certificate and grandchildren’s B-form attested. After waiting in a long queue for hours, I have been told by agents that I can bribe them to expedite the process. How can one afford to pay thousands of rupees for a two simple stamps in this era of inflation,” lamented Ali.

Highlighting the struggles of women at the Liaison Office, Bushra Shahid, a resident of Bedian Road, revealed that no restrooms or safe waiting areas were available for women. “Moreover, even though there is a separate token queue for women, the law and order situation is such that women are regularly harassed by men waiting in the opposite queue,” complained Bushra.

Similarly, Shahid, a student applying for a job abroad, had to get his educational credentials verified. “I came early in the morning and was able to get the token after two hours of waiting in a long queue. Now, I am waiting for my turn once again to get back the attested documents. There is no waiting area, drinking water or restroom facility available here and the police and civil servants posted at the main entrance behave like tyrants,” observed Shahid.

“Even after a long wait, the office staff say that the documents are incomplete. Documentation requirements need to be listed clearly on the website so that the applicants come prepared,” complained Khalid Waleed, another applicant.

Assessing applicants’ desperation for getting their documents verified quickly, agents have set up their dens at the photocopy shops outside the camp office. If an applicant wants to get a token without standing in a queue in the morning, then the token is provided to him by charging Rs2000 to Rs2500. Concurrently, if an applicant wants to speed up the verification process or his solicitation is incomplete, then he is charged Rs4500 to Rs7000. Once the money is paid to the agent, the entire day's process is completed in twenty minutes and the certified document, which in regular circumstances would cost no more than Rs5 to Rs60, is in the hands of the applicant.

The Express Tribune made an attempt to contact the concerned officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Liaison Office to note their stance on the public’s grievances, however the officials refused to comment on the matter, claiming that only the officers from the Islamabad office could deal with the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2024.