The passport department has amended the rules governing the issuance of passports as citizens will now be able to get their passport made from any city across the country regardless of the address mentioned in their computerised national identity card (CNIC).
The letter of amendment has been sent to regional offices.
Directorate General (DG) of Immigration and Passports Mustafa Jamal Qazi told Geo News that the decision by the federal government was made in light of the increasing issues faced by the citizens due to these restrictions.
As per the official statement, passport applications will not be refused if citizens’ residential address on CNIC is different from the area they are applying for the travel document.
Furthermore, the backlog of passports for people travelling across the country is expected to be cleared soon which will make the process even smoother.
10 advanced printing machines imported from outside the country have been included in the passport machinery and the installation is underway.
Express Tribune sources say that these machines will be fully operational within the next few days.
However, it is expected that this will double the printing capacity of passport office and reduce the waiting time for citizens applying for passports.
Earlier, in August this year long delays in the issuance of passports created inconvenience for the applicants.
The Passport and Immigration Department had confirmed that it failed to deliver passports to over 500,000 individuals on time, despite collecting millions of rupees in fees.
Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the National Assembly that the issue would be resolved by the end of September after the installation of new machinery and software as this gap between demand and supply is the reason of the delay.
The department, however, attributed the delays to a sudden increase in the number of Pakistanis seeking to travel abroad due to the plummeting economy of the country.
Notably, Passport Office recieves 40,000 to 50,000 applications daily but, even at full capacity it can only print 20,000 to 22,000 passports per day.
As a result, more than 500,000 people across the country are waiting for their passports despite having paid fee.
Those opting for the fast-track passport service-costing between Rs 20,000 and Rs 27,000-are receiving their passports within a week.
The passport office has expressed optimism about the installation of the new system as it will increase the daily capacity for issuing passports from 26,000 to 60,000.
