Non-availability of lamination paper: applicants facing inordinate delays in getting passports

Over 200,000 applicants are facing inordinate delays in getting their passports processed due to non-availability of lamination paper in the Directorate of Immigration and Passport, it is learnt. "The huge backlog is due to the failure of the government to provide the necessary funds to the Directorate of Immigration and Passport to enable it to purchase laminated paper", sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
The sources said that the Directorate of Immigration and Passport had signed an agreement with a US- based company for provision of lamination paper in 2004 but the firm was not going to supply the paper if it did not receive its due payment. The sources further revealed that the department had been issued strict directives by higher authorities to issue passports to VIPs on a priority basis, which accounted for the general public being placed on a low priority list.
As per regulations, urgent passport costing Rs 4,000 is issued within 4 to 6 days whereas normally it costs Rs 2100 and is issued within 15 days but over 200,000 people have not been issued passports even after two months. Source further said that the authorities purchased 12 lamination machines in 2004 for lamination purposes but now most of these machines are not properly working due to excessive use. Maqbool Ahmad Gondal, Project Director, said that passport office issued over 14,000 passports on a daily basis while the capacity of the machine purchased by the passport office in 2004 was 5000 per day.
Asad, an applicant, wants to visit his brother, who is ill in UAE, and he is still waiting for a passport more than a month after he applied for it. However, Gondal denied that over 200,000 applications were pending and added that there were no pending problems. "The Directorate of Immigration and Passport imported lamination paper from USA and it had arrived here in time", he maintained.