Agar said that due to the negative travel advisories issued by foreign missions, foreign buyers are reluctant to visit Pakistan, leaving the business community with no choice but to proceed abroad to the buyer’s country and other destinations for business meetings.
Agar added that the government has failed to portray the true picture of Pakistan with all its strength and potential in countries around the globe. He said that the government has failed to revive the confidence of international investors and buyers and to encourage them to visit Pakistan for investment and to meet their Pakistani business counterparts.
“The delays in passport renewal are adding to hardships faced by the Pakistani business community,” he said.
He said the backlog of 700,000 requests, which has been created in the last month, should have been cleared this month, but no emergency measures had been taken to control the situation. He added that it appeared as if the tender for lamination paper had been delayed to provide an opportunity to department officers to grease their palms with illegal gratification.
He appealed to the president and the caretaker prime minister to immediately intervene, and requested them to entertain renewal or new passport requests on a priority basis. He also demanded that dedicated passport counters be opened for members of the business and industrial community at all regional directorate generals of immigration and passports across Pakistan to facilitate international travelling.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2013.
Like Business on Facebook to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
"He appealed to President......"
"Meer Kia sada hain, bimaar huay jis kay sabab usse attar kay larkay say dawa laitay hain........"
Meer how naive you are, you go to the same person for treatment, who has caused all the maladies you are suffereing from.
I dont know why the media is silent on this matter. It should be highlighted on priority. A lot of people are suffering
Brother Mudassar, Your concerns are right but that’s what they want from this issue. Government machinery’s duty is making money for them, together with maximum satisfaction of their Foreign Lords.
Well i want to add something since the remittances are the second biggest source of income of Pakistan in dollars, the government should take steps to resolve as if the backlog is not finished we will see that the amount of money coming into pakistan will not increase with same pace as it is right now and again it will impact the economy of our country and the companies which are hiring Pakistanis abroad are thinking on the issues that it takes such a long time to hire any one from Pakistan.
I request to all authorities and people of Pakistan to work on fast pace to clear this issue.