Over 0.3 million passport applications lying pending

At least 300,000 applications are pending for issuance of passports due to shortage of lamination paper, which is mainly imported from France and Germany, it is learnt. Although passports are being issued where urgent fees are paid, ordinary passports are held up for want of laminated paper. The inordinate delay is causing misery to those who want to proceed abroad for studies or resume their jobs.
Another reason for this delay has been severe disorder in the machines for lamination on passports. According to information available here, issuance of passports has been halted for the last two to three months due to these problems. The worst affected are a large number of Pakistanis living in Gulf countries like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Doha, etc. Long delays and waiting period have made life difficult for these people as they cannot travel to Pakistan during the coming holidays in educational institutions.
To cash on this situation, the staff at the passport offices is extending full support to agents, who ask for money to help the needy people get passports. There are confirmed reports that agents are being supported by the passport office staff by holding back pending passports which have been received but are not being delivered to the owners unless they use the services of agents.
When the people go to the counter to get their passports, they are given a lame excuse and are directed to contact the agents outside the premises of passport office for immediate delivery of passports. The Ministry of Interior has of late taken note of the long delays in the issuance of passports and provided the Department of Immigration and Passports with new machines for passport lamination, besides mending the existing machines to ease the situation.
The Ministry, it is learnt, has issued strict directives to the Department of Immigration and Passports to issue all pending passports within two weeks to spare the people of mental torture. There have been reports that youngsters lost their jobs as their visa validity expired because they could not get their passports on time.