Passport woes about to end

ISLAMABAD:

The backlog of passports for travelers across the country is expected to be cleared soon, as 10 advanced printing machines, recently imported, have arrived at the Passport Office and are anticipated to be operational in the coming days.

Sources report that a shortage of printing machines has delayed passport issuance over the past few years, largely due to rising demand without matching departmental resources.

Currently, the Passport Department receives around 40,000 to 50,000 applications daily but, even at full capacity, only prints 20,000 to 22,000 passports per day. This gap between demand and supply has led to significant delays for citizens awaiting their passports.

To address this issue, the government decided to import advanced passport printing machines, and as a result, ten desktop printing machines have now arrived in Pakistan, with installation underway.

Sources indicate that these machines will be fully operational within the next few days. Once operational, the printing capacity of the Passport Office is expected to double, reducing waiting times for citizens applying for passports.

As per reports which emerged in August, the Passport and Immigration Department had failed to deliver passports to over 500,000 individuals on time, despite collecting millions of rupees in fees, officials confirmed.

Previously, regular fee passports were delayed by several months, but now even urgent fee passports are taking one to two months to be issued.

Sources within the department attributed the delays to a sudden surge in the number of Pakistanis seeking to travel abroad, driven by the country's worsening economic conditions.

The department is currently receiving around 50,000 applications daily for new and renewed passports nationwide, including from Lahore, but it only can process 25,000 passports per day.

As a result, more than 500,000 people across the country are still waiting for their passports despite having paid significant fees.

Only those opting for the fast-track service, which costs between Rs 20,000 and Rs 27,000, are receiving their passports within a week. The department previously faced issues with ink shortages and lamination paper, which have since been resolved, but it now struggles with insufficient printing capacity.