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Faster delivery of Pak passports promised
After a public outcry over the up to one year delay in issuing new machine-readable Pakistani passports as a result of a legal wrangle in the country, the UAE’s Pakistan Embassy has received an assurance from the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad that the delay has been slashed.
Khaleej Times had exclusively reported on Thursday that there were 40,000 residents in the country who would have to wait for up to a year to get new machine-readable passports, leading to a rush of people to the embassy and consulate applying for handwritten passport extensions in order to keep their paperwork up to date and save jobs.
For months, thousands of Pakistanis in the country have been waiting for their new passports after renewal at the Embassy in the Capital and the Consulate General in Dubai. A legal stoush between a French company, which claims it should have won a tender to issue the new passport lamination papers, and the Pakistan Interior Ministry who awarded the tender to an American company, has led to the delay in issuing the new machine-readable passports.
In response to the Khaleej Times report, Ambassador Jamil Ahmed Khan said the Interior Ministry in Islamabad had been contacted on the issue.
The ambassador also had a meeting with community members along with senior diplomats at the embassy premises on Thursday to discuss the issue that has affected thousands of people.
“The ministry has promised to begin reprinting passports instantly and assured ending the entire backlog latest by the end of June this year,” Khan told the meeting, much sooner than the initial estimation of a between six-month and one year waiting time.
He also said the authorities in Islamabad acknowledged the efforts made by the Embassy in highlighting this matter at the highest forums and addressing the concerns of the expatriate community. On Wednesday, Khan conducted a surprise visit to the consular hall at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi and issued on-the-spot instructions to the consular staff to extend full support to those who had been affected by the persistent delays.
Several weeks ago, the Ambassador had ordered consular staff to extend all passports for a year manually (hand written) until the new passports arrived from Islamabad.
The delivery of new passport books has been delayed for more than two months, leading to huge crowds of applicants at the Embassy and Consulate.
The problem has also affected hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in other GCC countries, UK and North America, with scenes of chaos and violence at some embassy offices in Pakistan.
Ambassador Khan gave an assurance that he would persist in his efforts to make sure Pakistani residents in the UAE got their new passports on time so their jobs and businesses were not affected.
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