Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday said that the government did not hold any negotiations with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). "The negotiations will be held with Taliban only when they surrender weapons," he said while taking to media after a meting with the UAE Ambassador here on Sunday.
He said that he could not say that drone attacks would stop after the vacating Shamsi Airbase by US. He said that UAE did not make any demand about Shamsi Airbase.
Meanwhile, the minister has said that printing process of passports is being de-centralised, as these would be issued at provincial headquarters and district level. He directed the concerned authorities to complete the process within two months time. He said that earlier passports were issued only from Islamabad, but the de-centralisation would help facilitate those living across Pakistan and overseas Pakistani as well. The minister, who held a meeting with concerned departments, said he has also directed to double the strength of staff in 36 passport offices of Pakistan world-wide and in future these offices would also have passports' printing facility. He said issuance of passports would start within a week from Los Angles, United States.
The minister said more passport offices were being established in Multan , Lahore and Dera Ghazi Khan while passport offices in Haripur and Chakwal would start functioning soon.
Rehman Malik said issuance process of Machine Readable Passport (MRP) was being improved and such passports would soon be issued from Pakistan 's embassies abroad.
He took serious notice of complaints regarding passport offices and issued directives to concerned authorities to make Directorate of Passports and Immigration as corruption free.