Interior Minister Rehman Malik took notice on Friday of the backlog in the issuance of machine-readable passports (MRPs) and has given passport authorities a week to clear it. However, according to sources at the passport office, the issue is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.
“The production capacity of the infrastructure for MRPs is the same as it was in 2005, while the demand has escalated,” said an official at the Federal Investigation Agency’s passport headquarters.
He complained that instead of increasing this capacity, the government focuses on ‘political appointments’ that flood FIA offices.
“The son of an important Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA from Lyari, Karachi was appointed as assistant in-charge of production but he did not show up [for work] for a single day,” said the official, adding that there are many other similar appointments.
The official also said that the inquiry ordered by interior minister will not accomplish much as “no serious effort was put in to address the core issue.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012.
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