Funds delay hinders passport issuance

Hundreds of thousands of applications pending

LAHORE:

The timely issuance of machine-readable and e-passports to a large number of citizens has been delayed as despite the Passport and Immigration Department meeting all legal requirements, in-cluding tendering and ordering state-of-the-art printing machines, the Finance Division has failed to release the required funds.

According to official statistics, over 800,000 people across the country are waiting to obtain the passports.

Previously, the number had exceeded 1.5 million.

A senior official of the Passport and Immigration Department said it had deposited over Rs50 billion in revenue into the government treasury. However, when the department required funds to pur-chase modern printing machines to facilitate timely passport issuance, the government failed to release Rs2.9 billion. Consequently, the citizens had to wait for several months to obtain their passports.

Sources in the department said the delay in releasing funds had hindered the procurement of the required equipment. The department had completed all legal formalities, including tendering and issuing orders to the selected company, but the lack of funds has stalled the purchase.

The country faces a massive passport backlog, with about 75,000 applications received daily, while the department can only process 22,000 passports daily, leaving 53,000 applicants in limbo.

Passport and Immigration Director General Mustafa Jamal Qazi said efforts were under way to ac-quire the latest printing technology during the next month. He stated that after hectic efforts, passports had been issued to about 800,000 people out of 1.5 million applicants, but more applica-tions had poured in.

Qazi added that the Finance Division had been approached again to release funds for purchasing the machinery for enabling timely passport issuance.

The new machine, capable of printing 40,000 passports daily, will double the current production rate and all pending documents would be issued by December, he said.