Passports with 10-year validity to be introduced, National Assembly told

The government has decided to start issuing the machine-readable passports, to its citizens, for a period of 10 years to address difficulties of the Pakistanis living abroad. Parliamentary Secretary for Interior, Mujtaba Kharral, responding to a call-attention notice in National Assembly, said on Tuesday that besides issuing machine-readable passports for ten years the option of five years passport would also be kept functional to facilitate those citizens who make short visits or business tours abroad.
He said that there were some technical problems in starting the process, but assured the House that the government was aware of the problems faced by Pakistanis abroad, and the process of issuing 10-year machine-readable passport would be started. Kharral said the PC-1 of the project would be prepared, and new software would also be introduced for this purpose. He, however, added that children would be issued passport for five years because their biological features would change with the passage of time.
The call-attention notice was moved by PPP's Yasmeen Rehman, Abdul Ghani Talpur, Amir Ali Shah, Abdul Ghafoor and Dr Talat Mahesar They said that most of Pakistanis abroad had complained that they were facing difficulties due to the current machine-readable passport, being issued for five years, and urged the government to increase the time period to 10 years.
Meanwhile, PPP's Jamshed Dasti lashed out at the on-going corruption in the ministry. "Corruption is curse, which must be eradicated", he said, adding that it was unfortunate that whenever courts pointed out corruption in the institution "we call it a conspiracy. No conspiracy is being hatched; there is corruption, which the government should stop." He said that he had also brought the matter to the notice of the Prime Minister several times but the government showed its inability to ensure support of the coalition partners.
Another PPP member Noor Alam Khan pointed out that since the chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Nisar Ali Khan has resigned the process of parliamentary accountability" has stopped".
He said that the treasury members have many a time requisitioned the meeting of the panel but it was not summoned up till now. "The PAC is currently the only platform to check corruption in various ministries", he said, and also called upon the Chair to give ruling for summoning the meeting of the panel. Parliamentary secretary for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and MNA from Kurram Agency, Sajid Hussain Turi, condemned the blast of improvised explosive devise (IED) in a passenger vehicle near Pir Qayyum area of Lower Kurram Agency.
He said that the militants once again want to create law and order situation in the area where normalcy has been restored after four years of violence due to the efforts made by tribal peace Jirga. He pointed out that it was the seventh IED blast on the passenger vehicle in the war from Parachinar to Peshawar in the last few months and also called upon the government to immediately stop such accidents and take action against those involved.