ISLAMABAD: The government has tightened the rules governing the issuance of blue passports and reduced the total number of such passports from 75,000 to 30,000.
“In the past, blue passports had been issued to people who were not entitled [to them],” said State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior. The meeting was chaired by Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman.
Chaudhry said that whenever Pakistan discusses visa-free arrangements or signs memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with other countries, they raise questions about the number of blue passports issued by Pakistan.
The minister further said that a large number of blue passports had been issued to bureaucrats.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Abid Sher Ali said that officials at the passport office had demanded a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Interior from him when he visited the office to obtain blue passports for his family.
“Have the rules been changed, and have we [parliamentarians] become subordinate to anyone?” he questioned.
Director General Immigration and Passports (I&P) Chaudhry Muhammad Ali Randhawa said the passport office issues passports to parliamentarians when they apply for their own travel documents. “He did not know about Senator Abid Sher Ali’s case,” he said.
The committee chairman said the parliamentary body should be informed under which rule the passport office had referred the matter to the Ministry of Interior.
“The relevant rules should be submitted before the committee under which permission from the Ministry of Interior is mandatory,” he said.
The committee also raised the issue of tinted glasses in vehicles. The chairman said that no law was available when the parliamentary body asked for the relevant law on the matter to be submitted before it.
Senator Naseema Ehsan said “if there was no law regarding the use of tinted glasses, the government should explain what arrangements had been made for people facing security threats.”
“Due to security issues, I have not gone to my home for the last five years,” she said, adding that the Ministry of Interior needed to take concrete measures to address the issues raised by parliamentarians.
Regarding the issuance of prohibited-bore arms licences, the state minister said that during previous regimes, the Interior Ministry had become an arms-licensing branch.
“During the last two years, prohibited-bore arms licences have been issued only to entitled people,” he said, adding the quota for prohibited-bore arms licences had been increased from two percent to five percent for people in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He further said that around 100,000 arms licences used to be issued in the past, but the number had now been curtailed by 30 per cent.
He said a proposal was under consideration to increase the quota for arms licences in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to up to 10 per cent.
Senator Talha Mahmood said that concessions should be given to businessmen and students during issuance of visas.
The minister said that when the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan were good, then 100,000 visas had been issued. Under 18 categories, visas had been issued to Afghan nationals, he said.
He said Afghan issue was very sensitive; therefore, the matter should also be discussed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The minister alleged that people had taken money to add Afghan nationals into their family trees. He said that Afghan nationals were found involved in the terror attacks in KP and Balochistan.
“Afghan nationals were involved in the terror attack in Islamabad and the murder a businessman, namely Amair Awan, in the federal capital”, he said.
Abid Sher Ali suggested that short-term visas be issued to businessmen after strict security.
An official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the committee that the agency did not check mobile phones of passengers at airports. The FIA only checks the mobile phones of those people regarding whom there is information about human smuggling, he said.
Chaudhry said that a businessman was offloaded as his name was included in an investigation involving Rs12 billion. The businessman’s name was included in the passport control list, due to which he was barred from travelling abroad, he said, adding that a passenger travelling to Sri Lanka was barred from travelling in spite of receiving a call from an MNA regarding the matter.
He said when the said passenger was interviewed about his trip, he said he was travelling to visit the grave of Prophet Adam. When the FIA’s officials asked his father’s name, he said his father was a rickshaw driver.
The committee also discussed the tragic loss of 14 newborn lives following a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). The committee questioned the Capital Development Authority (CDA) about when the last fire and electrical audit of PIMS was conducted. The chairman asked when the most recent fire safety certificate was issued to PIMS.
He asked the CDA chairman to present the audit report of PIMS to the committee before the next meeting. CDA chief told the committee that the last audit of PIMS was conducted in September 2025.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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