Outside passport office: Tout mafia looting applicants

Offering services to secure tokens for nominal fees.

RAWALPINDI:

In order to overcome rampant lawlessness, Pakistanis have seemingly devised any number of shortcuts to help bend the law at their own convenience.

A good example of this can be seen at the newly-established regional passport office, outside which touts are seen roaming freely and extorting money from unknowing applicants by securing tokens and enabling them to get to the counter, bypassing their patiently queued-up counterparts.

To avoid these queues and save time, some applicants fall prey to these touts.

“Have you come to get a passport made? I can help you get a token and save you time,” offers a tout to an applicant at the office gate.

Such touts continue to flourish outside the office precincts as applicants who are either frail, old people or women cannot wait in queues.

Although the system has now been made online and the applicant has to appear in person before the officials to fill in the form, these touts have developed close contacts with the officials or deployed dummies to get their clients’ work done at the earliest. They can be seen lurking inside and outside the office searching for clients, who are charged fees anywhere between Rs500 and Rs1,000.

“For some passport seekers, these touts have become a convenience. But for the rest, they are a bane as the rightfully waiting applicants are made to stand for hours,” said an applicant Sultan Sikandar. Explaining these touts’ modus operandi, Sikandar said they often deposit bank fees and visit the office with their client applicant, bribe gatekeepers to secure the client’s entry to the office, and get them registered while bypassing those patiently waiting in line. He added that these touts often deploy a dummy to get a token for their client to prevent the latter from the long wait.

Shujaur Rahman, an applicant from Rawat told The Express Tribune that he paid Rs2,500 to a tout who secured a hassle-free entry to the office in no time.

Another client, Salman Ahmad from Kartarpura, said, “It was much more convenient for me to secure entry without waiting in a long queue.”

This practice raises questions of injustice for those waiting for their turn in queues.

Passport Office Assistant Director Sadir Khan said the system is online so no one can bypass another.  “I haven’t received any such complaint so far. When we do, relevant action will be taken against these agents,” said Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2014.