Passport woes may be over by September

Govt decides to buy eight new machines for printing them

ISLAMABAD:

The problem of the delay in issuing passports across the country is about to be solved as the government has decided to order eight new machines for printing them.

According to sources, the director general of immigration and passports has prepared a requisition for this purpose and sent it to the interior ministry.

Passport authorities said the new machines would be ordered from abroad in September this year.

Six desktops and two e-passport machines will be procured.

The new machines are capable of printing 1,000 passports in an hour.

The passport authorities said complaints of delay in issuing the travel document were being received from across the country for the last 1.5 years.

They added that with the arrival of the new machines, this problem of the citizens would be solved to a large extent.

The passport issuance process has been delayed for the past year because of a shortage of lamination paper and the limited capacity of existing machinery, causing significant inconvenience for citizens.

Instead of the usual output of about 12,000 travel documents daily, the authorities have been delivering only up to 3,000, mostly urgent and e-passports.

Applicants paying the normal fees have to wait for about four months.

The department imports the paper from France, but the consignment was delayed because of a shortage of dollars.

Sources said the ink and printers for the machine-readable passports were purchased from Germany.

The prolonged delays have left many frustrated and anxious, signifying a serious need for efficiency and reform in the passport issuance process.