Herculean task: Only the influential can get a passport in Pakistan

Issue likely to remain unresolved for at least another two to three months.

ISLAMABAD:

You need to either be or know a VIP or a journalist to get a passport these days. Merely submitting a fee is not enough.

“Requests for ordinary passports are not on priority for the moment,” an official at the Passport and Immigration Office in Islamabad told The Express Tribune. More than 500,000 applications have piled up, but a little over 2,000 passports are being printed daily, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A colleague of his, however, placed the number much lower at less than 500 passports a day.

“No passport has been issued on an application with urgent fee since January 28 this year, while ordinary passports have been pending since November last year,” he added.

The official said the problem is deep-rooted and could not be resolved for at least another two to three months.

“The lamination required for printing passports is not available … the interior ministry and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cancelled the tender for the procurement of lamination,” he revealed.

The accountability body stopped the immigration office from going ahead with its procurement deal with a company that had provided it lamination before, declaring it illegal.

NAB maintained the deal was made without publishing a fresh tender, a violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules, the official said. He added that the passport office had the capacity to print around 8,000 passports daily, but without lamination and ink “nothing could be done.”

Another official, however, said the problem was much more complicated than it appeared. “The office and staff’s services have been overstretched due to the establishment of unnecessary sub-offices across the country,” he maintained.

According to the official, five years ago, there were no more than 27 passport offices in the country.

“There are 70 offices today … some were opened just to oblige public representatives,” he claimed. The official said that while there were still no passport offices in bigger districts, such as Sanghar, offices were set up in places like Koobay Chak – the constituency of former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani’s brother – or villages like Jalalpur Pirwala and Qadirpur – the constituencies of Gilani’s sons.

“More offices mean more data has to be processed at the printing press. The monthly data went up from 8,000 to 18,000 and the staff at the office was forced work beyond capacity,” said the officer. This resulted in the quick consumption of raw material for passports’ printing, he added.

Furthermore, certain officers were entertaining requests from ‘passport agents’, who sit outside the offices of the National Bank of Pakistan.  “Such requests were dealt on priority basis… as such they increased day by day.”

The process of issuing a fresh tender and subsequently procuring new lamination material will take at least two months, said the official. “It does not seem high on the government’s priority list,” he added.

Passport and Immigration Director General Wajid Bukhari was unavailable for comments when contacted.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2013.