Govt officers advised to obtain passport with real profession

LAHORE: Directorate General Immigration and Passport has advised all government officers/officials, who concealed their profession in passports, to contact passport offices to get rectified passports within three months.

Official sources told APP here on Wednesday, an NOC and a recommendation of the respective department was needed for government officers/officials to renew their passports.

All those officers/officials, who had obtained their passports before joining the government job, have been directed to correct their data in the passport.

It has been cleared that an amount of Rs5000 will be levied on defaulting officers/officials who obtained passports in private capacity being government servants.

On expiry of the given period of three months, the passports of defaulting officers/officials will be cancelled/blocked and a legal action under the relevant Section of Passport Act 1974 will be initiated against them by the department concerned through Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

All zonal heads have been directed and authorised to review the recommendations of government employees from their respective departments regarding obtaining passport in concealment and approval will be accorded by the Zonal heads for the cases forwarded to them by the Regional Passport Officers (RPOs) under their control.

All those cases which are already referred by the different RPOs to the Directorate general may be disposed of, in the same manner and this practice shall remain enforced during the amnesty.

The sources further informed that all RPOs, who had already processed the cases of the government officers/officials after obtaining approval from the headquarters must write to such employees for additional fee during the amnesty period (three months). In case, fee is not paid by the individuals during grace period, their cases will be reported to the Directorate general so that their passports are blocked till the submission of the additional fee.