Unending passport delays

Pakistanis are being denied their basic right to have a passport by these inordinate delays.

There is so much business the government has left unfinished after serving out its term that many outstanding issues have been all but ignored, both by the politicians and the media. High on the list of matters that need to be resolved immediately by the caretaker government is the backlog of pending passports. The number currently stands at an astounding 750,000 and is being blamed on non-functioning passport machines. Just a few months ago, then interior minister Rehman Malik had promised to release Rs700 million to fix the problems but clearly this has not been done as yet. The glut of unissued passports, if not tackled immediately, will only get worse over the course of the year as citizens begin to apply for passports so that they can perform Hajj.

Moreover, according to Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), which has now requested the chief justice to take suo-motu action on the inordinate delays in providing passports to citizens, the passport office has become extremely corrupt in the last five years. The delay, according to TIP, is compounded by problems of power outages, breakdown of passport making machines, and since last year, due to passport-paper shortage.

It is estimated that 15-20,000 people apply for passports every day so the number of pending passports will keep rising at a rate where it may become impossible to clear the backlog. A passport is supposed to be issued in 15 working days, but that is now a mere aspiration. Apart from the sheer inconvenience that travellers will face solely because of government ineptitude, this problem will also have economic ramifications for the country. Many citizens will be unable to take up jobs abroad because they won’t receive their passports in time to apply for work visas. These citizens would likely have sent valuable foreign currency back to Pakistan in the form of remittances. Not only are Pakistanis being denied their basic right to have a passport, by these inordinate delays, the government is only ending up shooting itself in the foot.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.