Why people in Pakistan are unable to get new passports

Zain Ijaz, a resident of Pakistan, had long dreamt of studying in the United Kingdom. When he finally secured admission to a university in the UK, it seemed like his dream was within reach. But, an extraordinary delay in getting his passport now threatens to shatter his dreams. Many people, including Ijaz, are having great difficulty obtaining new passports as the country is running low of lamination papers, which they buy from France. The government has a backlog of around lakhs of unprinted passports, putting Pakistanis’ ambitions to travel abroad for study, job, or vacation in peril. How big is the problem? How is the shortage affecting thousands of Pakistanis? Let’s take a closer look. No new passport for Pakistani citizens Despite being aware of the lamination paper shortages, the Pakistani media reports, the officials responsible for the procurement did not take timely action, which disrupted the printing of the passports in the country. On the other hand, the applications filed by the citizens for new passport has increased significantly. A rough estimate, as per Daily Pakistan, suggests the department receives 20,000 to 30,000 passport applications per day. However, the current figure is around 40,000 per day. Passport offices continue to receive applications despite having been warned that they will be unable to deliver the documents on time due to a shortage of lamination papers. The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has extended the delivery period, due to an increase in applications. [caption id=“attachment_13371862” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has extended the delivery period for a standard passport from 10 days to a month. Image used for representational purpose/Pixabay[/caption] The delivery period for a standard passport has been extended from 10 days to a month, while urgent mode takes 15 days instead of five days, and passports applied through fast-track mode take five days instead of two days, according to Express News. There are multiple reasons for the spike in the number of applicants seeking passports but primarily the economic woes being faced by the citizens in Pakistan are pushing the young people to seek job opportunities abroad. Furthermore, the relaxation of travel restrictions has encouraged many to travel abroad for religious reasons or to visit their favourite tourist location. According to the Times of Karachi, the government has a backlog of approximately seven lakh unprinted passports, and once the lamination paper is arrived, printing will resume even on weekends to make up for lost time. ‘No clue when the pendency will improve’ “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 the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGI&P) seems to have cost me my golden ticket out poverty and this country,” Gul, who hails from a remote part of Punjab, told The Express Tribune. “My student visa for Italy was recently approved, and I had to be in the country in October,” said another student from Peshawar Hira. “However, the unavailability of a passport robbed me of an opportunity to leave." Notably, this inefficiency is not a one-off event. Back in 2013, passport printing came to a similar grinding halt due to the DGI&P owing money to printers and a lack of lamination papers. When asked about DGI&P’s inefficiency, Qadir Yar Tiwana, Director General for Media of the Ministry of Interior, the parent ministry of DGI&P, said, “The situation will soon be under control, and passport issuance will continue as normal.” [caption id=“attachment_13371882” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The relaxation of travel restrictions has encouraged many to travel abroad for religious reasons or to visit their favourite tourist location. Image used for representational purpose/Pixabay[/caption] Tiwana stated that the government was doing all possible to handle the issue, and that the department has already seen a gradual decrease in the backlog. Karachi receives about 3,000 passport applications per day as per official estimates, claimed Faizan, a resident of North Nazimabad. He expressed his displeasure with the DGI&P’s poor administration, saying, “I submitted my application more than two months ago and have not received my passport yet,” as reported by The Express Tribune. Meanwhile, Amir, a resident of Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal district, claims that he received an SMS from the DGI&P last month indicating that his passport was ready for pickup, but when he came at the relevant office, the personnel informed him that his passport had not yet arrived. “My passport has not arrived to date and I have had to cancel all my plans for travelling abroad,” an irate Amir said. According to the article, which quotes a senior officer of the passport office in Peshawar, they can currently only process 12 to 13 passports each day, compared to 3,000 to 4,000 earlier, and they have no clue when the pendency would be improved. “People may have to wait for another month or two,” the spokesman stated. With inputs from ANI