Travel delays: Emergency steps needed as passport requests hit 700,000
15,000 every day applications inundate offices waiting for lamination paper and ink.
The adhoc solution for stopping applications for extensions in existing passports has already hit a wall. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
If you are waiting for a passport, and are not a VIP or faced with an emergency, you can forget about travelling any time soon. Only those with an emergency, who personally visit the Immigration and Passport Office (I&PO) in Islamabad – currently inundated with requests – are being entertained these days.
All new passport issuance requests are only adding to the rapidly growing pile of over 700,000 applications filed from around the country. After the government issued a notice, passport authorities said a tender for acquiring lamination paper and ink would be launched in 10 days.
“Till then, the number of applications will reach one million and it could go well beyond one million by the time the lamination is actually made available,” said a Passport Office official, who wished not to be named, adding that he feared the system would collapse if no emergency, workable steps are taken.
The adhoc solution for stopping applications for extensions in existing passports has already hit a wall. The ‘manual extension’ solution of extending the date on a person’s passport by putting a stamp on the existing book has already been already rejected, the officer said.
Many foreign embassies will not accept passports with manual extension for visa applications. Also, those who do not posses machine readable passports or those who have consumed all the space on their existing copies cannot be given a manual extension, the officer added.
The manual extension solution was suggested in the early days of the crisis, but it was not replaced with a better idea after it failed, said the official.
“Besides VIPs, people with Umrah tickets or other documentary evidence showing the need for a passport are being issued passports,” said another passport officer.
New tender and acquisition of lamination is at least 30 days away and that too only if it is seriously pursued, cautioned the officer.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 23rd, 2013.
If you are waiting for a passport, and are not a VIP or faced with an emergency, you can forget about travelling any time soon. Only those with an emergency, who personally visit the Immigration and Passport Office (I&PO) in Islamabad – currently inundated with requests – are being entertained these days.
All new passport issuance requests are only adding to the rapidly growing pile of over 700,000 applications filed from around the country. After the government issued a notice, passport authorities said a tender for acquiring lamination paper and ink would be launched in 10 days.
“Till then, the number of applications will reach one million and it could go well beyond one million by the time the lamination is actually made available,” said a Passport Office official, who wished not to be named, adding that he feared the system would collapse if no emergency, workable steps are taken.
The adhoc solution for stopping applications for extensions in existing passports has already hit a wall. The ‘manual extension’ solution of extending the date on a person’s passport by putting a stamp on the existing book has already been already rejected, the officer said.
Many foreign embassies will not accept passports with manual extension for visa applications. Also, those who do not posses machine readable passports or those who have consumed all the space on their existing copies cannot be given a manual extension, the officer added.
The manual extension solution was suggested in the early days of the crisis, but it was not replaced with a better idea after it failed, said the official.
“Besides VIPs, people with Umrah tickets or other documentary evidence showing the need for a passport are being issued passports,” said another passport officer.
New tender and acquisition of lamination is at least 30 days away and that too only if it is seriously pursued, cautioned the officer.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 23rd, 2013.