'Passport backlog to be cleared in 30 days', NA told

Parliamentary Secretary for Interior informs national assembly about steps taken to address the issue.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Tuesday that the government has issued 12 million passports within the country and to overseas Pakistanis during its tenure.     

Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Rai Mujtaba Kharal informed the House that present shortage of passport copies is temporary as Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) has agreed to enhance the daily printing.

"We shall be receiving 30,000 passports today and more in coming days to meet the needs of applicants," Kharal said and mentioned that shortfall was due to decrease in number of daily printed passports by the PCP.

"Now, the issue has been resolved and the PCP has started printing copies as per requirement. We shall clear the backlog within 30 days," Kharal added.

The parliamentary secretary said release of funds by the government will also improve the situation as he informed the House that Passport Department earns Rs74 billion annual revenue.

He further informed that the number of passport centres has been increased from 32 to 74, which will also speed up the issuing process. He said pages of passports have been increased to 100 and validity has been raised to ten years instead of five years.

Several MNAs had drawn the attention of the Interior Minister towards delay in preparation of passports due to non-provision of funds to passport offices.

The members had expressed their concerns over delay and said it was creating problems for the applicants.