The Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed on Thursday that over 12,000 Afghan nationals were caught in the last five years while travelling to Saudi Arabia on fake Pakistani passports.
The committee, which met with its chairman Faisal Saleem in the chair, deferred a briefing on the law and order situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as the provincial home secretary and the inspector general (IG) of police did not attend the meeting.
At the onset of the meeting, the participants offered Fateha for the departed soul of the late senator Taj Haider.
While, taking up the agenda items, the participants showed reservations over the absence of the K-P officials. The chair postponed the briefing until the next meeting.
Director General Passports Mustafa Jamal Qazi informed the meeting that 12,000 people reached Saudi Arabia on fake Pakistani passports.
Of them, 3,000 had photo-swapped passports, while 6,000 passports were issued by tampering with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) data.
"Most of the people who travelled on these fake documents were deported to Afghanistan. None of them is now in Pakistan, Qazi told the committee.
He added that action had been taken against several NADRA and Passport Department officials, involved in the fake passport case.
When a committee member asked whether action was taken any officers or just low-ranking officials were punished, the Passports DG replied that 35 assistant directors were also included among those people who faced the action.
The Passport DG also raised the issue of the financial problems of his department.
He said that they earn Rs50 billion annually for the government, yet they had make rounds of the government offices to ask for the budget.
Meanwhile, the issue of vehicles with tinted windows was also taken up in the meeting.
The Excise Department Director, Muhammad Bilal, told the committee that since August, several arrests were made and Rs33 million was imposed in fines on the vehicles with tinted windows.
The committee members raised the question under which law action was being taken against such vehicles.
On that an Interior Ministry officials told the participants that there was no specific law on this issue. The chair proposed to the department concerned to set a fee for this purpose.
Also, the committee expressed serious concern over the illegal activities in the guesthouses of Islamabad.
The chair revealed that many guesthouses in the federal capital become shisha cafes, bars and drug dens.
The Islamabad IG assured the committee of taking action against illegal guesthouses and drug dealers.
The chair emphasised a zero tolerance policy on drugs. He sought a list of all guesthouses in Islamabad and a complete report on the actions taken against them.
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