Karachi: Pakistani citizens are facing difficulties in obtaining new passports due to a nationwide shortage of lamination paper, The Express Tribune reported on Wednesday.
According to the country’s Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGI&P)the lamination paper, which is used in passports is imported from France, and its shortage has resulted in a nationwide scarcity of the travel document.
Govt doing best to navigate crisis
Qadir Yar Tiwana, the Director General for Media of the Ministry of Interior, the parent ministry of DGI&P, said that the government was doing its best to navigate the crisis. "The situation will soon be under control and passport issuance will continue as normal," assured Tiwana, further adding that the department had already witnessed a steady decline in the backlog.
This shortage has impacted thousands of Pakistanis who had travel plans abroad. Numerous students are facing impending admission deadlines at universities worldwide and have blamed the inefficiency of the Pakistan government for the crisis.
Zain Ijaz, a resident of Gujrat, is one such among thousands of individuals who is facing difficulty in getting the travel document. Ijaz had nurtured a long-held dream of pursuing his education in the United Kingdom. When he successfully secured admission to a UK university, it appeared that his dream was on the verge of becoming a reality. Unfortunately, an unusual delay in obtaining his passport now jeopardizes his aspirations.
According to The Express Tribune, thousands of individuals, much like Ijaz, who require the green-coloured passport for overseas travel, whether for educational, professional, or leisure purposes, find themselves in a predicament with no immediate solution in sight.
"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 poverty and this country," bemoaned Gul, who belongs to a far-flung area in Punjab.
A student from Peshawar, named Hira, shared a similar experience. Hira said, "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”.
Pakistan faced similar halt in passport printing in 2013
It's worth noting that this inefficiency is not an isolated incident. The Express Tribune reported that in 2013, passport production also came to a standstill due to the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (DGI&P) owing money to printers and a shortage of lamination papers.
The Pakistan-based news daily reported quoting, Faizan, a resident of North Nazimabad in Karachi, a city which receives around 3,000 passport applications every day as per official estimates, does not buy Tiwana's assurances. "I submitted my application more than 2 months ago and have not received my passport yet," he said, further adding that he had to cancel his leisure trip because of the DGI&P's mismanagement.
Concurring with Faizan, Amir, a resident of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the metropolis, said that the DGI&P was clearly misleading the people about the decline in the backlog of travel documents.
Muhammad Imran, a resident of Peshawar, is in the same predicament and is tired of the DGI&P leading applicants on instead of telling them the truth. "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," remarked Imran, who had to cancel his Umrah bookings in Saudi Arabia due to the lack of a concrete timeline by his local passport office.
Can only process 12 to 13 passports per day
It appears that regional passport offices in various cities are also uncertain about a specific timeline for resolving the issue. For instance, a senior officer at the passport office in Peshawar, speaking anonymously to The Express Tribune, revealed that they can currently process only 12 to 13 passports per day, a significant decrease compared to the previous capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 passports per day. Furthermore, the official expressed uncertainty about when the backlog would be resolved, suggesting that people might have to wait for another month or two.
On the other hand, Saeed Ahmed Abbasi, the Director of Passports and Immigration at the Zonal Office Saddar in Karachi, refrained from providing a timeline when questioned about the issue. He mentioned that officially, he was not in a position to provide a response regarding the timeline for resolving the passport shortage.
