In addition to massive flour shortage, soaring inflation, exorbitant electricity bills and depreciating currency among other things, Pakistani citizens are now facing difficulties in securing new passports due to scarcity of lamination paper used in printing passports, which is yet another evidence of the crippling state of affairs in the country.
According to a report in The Express Tribune, the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGI&P) informed that a lack of lamination paper which is used in passports and usually imported from France has caused a shortfall of travel documents across the country and it has led to delays in their issuance.
Therefore, thousands of individuals who require the green book to travel overseas for employment, school or leisure are stuck in the country and there does not appear to be a way out of their present predicament. One such person is Zain Ijaz from Gujrat who had always wanted to go to university in the United Kingdom. His dream seemed to be within reach when he was eventually accepted to an institution in the western nation. However, his dreams are now in jeopardy due to the delay in receiving his passport.
Another person named Gul who is a native of a far-flung area in Punjab also shared his distress and lamented, “I was all set to move to Dubai for work soon. My family and I were beyond ecstatic that our fortunes would finally change but the mismanagement of DGI&P seems to have cost me my golden ticket out of poverty and this country.”
Hira, a Peshawar student, resonated with Gul’s plight. “My student visa for Italy was recently approved and I had to be in the country in October. However, the unavailability of a passport robbed me of an opportunity to leave,” an obviously irate Hira bemoaned and added that it was wrong that she was having to bear the brunt of an incompetent government agency.
It is important to note that this inefficiency is a recurring problem. The DGI&P’s debt to printers and a dearth of lamination sheets caused passport printing to come to an identical standstill in 2013.
Qadir Yar Tiwana, the Director General for Media of the Ministry of Interior which is the parent ministry of DGI&P responded to inquiries regarding the ineptness of the department claiming that the government was working its hardest to resolve the problem. He assured, “The situation will soon be under control and passport issuance will continue as normal,” and alleged that the department had already seen a consistent decrease in the backlog.
Faizan, a resident of Karachi’s North Nazimabad neighbourhood, which according to government estimates receives 3,000 passport applications daily, does not, however, believe the official’s guarantees. “I submitted my application more than 2 months ago and have not received my passport yet,” he revealed and blamed DGI&P’s poor administration which forced him to postpone his vacation.
Amir, a city dweller in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal region agreed with Faizan and asserted that the DGI&P was deceiving the public regarding the reduction in the backlog of travel documents. He mentioned that although he was provided with an SMS last month from the DGI&P indicating that his passport was available for pickup, the workers at the relevant office informed him that it had not yet arrived. “My passport has not arrived to date and I have had to cancel all my plans for travelling abroad,” he complained.
Muhammad Imran, a Peshawar resident who is facing the same scenario is fed up with the DGI&P misleading applicants rather than providing them with the facts. “Ever since September, the passport office has been stating that your passport will come next week but multiple weeks have passed and they keep repeating the same.” His local passport office did not provide him with a specific timeline and he was forced to cancel his Umrah reservations in Saudi Arabia.
Regional passport offices located in multiple cities were reportedly unaware of a specific schedule as well. For example, under the condition of anonymity, a senior officer of the passport office in Peshawar unveiled that they could only process 12 to 13 passports per day compared to 3,000 to 4,000 passports per day previously and they had no idea when the pendency would improve. He disclosed, “People may have to wait for another month or two.”
Saeed Ahmed Abbasi, Director of Passports and Immigration at the Zonal Office Saddar, Karachi, refused to reply when pressed for a deadline and claimed that he was not authorised to do so.
Notably, Pakistan has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. The South Asian country has gained notoriety for its faltering economy, growing terrorism, tumultuous politics and mounting debt for the past many years with no end to its escalating woes in sight.
