Passport printing capacity to be increased by end of September, NA told

Islamabad: Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the National Assembly on Tuesday that new machinery and software would be installed to increase the printing capacity of passports to 55,000 to 60,000 per day by the end of September this year.

In response to a Calling Attention Notice regarding delays in issuing passports, the federal minister expressed optimism that the introduction of the new system would also help clear the existing backlog of passport applications.

He said that during the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, orders were issued for the export of the new system, and the process has continued under the interim government.

"We hope the new system will be installed soon, and the daily capacity for issuing passports will increase from 26,000 to 60,000," he added.

The minister highlighted that the number of missions has increased from 20 to 92, and with the increase in passport offices, there is a pressing need for upgraded machinery and advanced printers to meet the demand.

The citizens witnessed prolonged delays in the issuance of passports as even those who paid fees for "urgent" passports have also been waiting for months to get their travel documents.

The issue was also taken up in the National Assembly’s Interior Committee last month which questioned the relevant authorities following the increasing number of public complaints, The News reported.

Passport and Immigration Director General (DG) Mustafa Jamal Qazi briefed the committee that the delay in passport printing was caused by the dysfunctional and old machinery, adding that the department has been granted approval from the Interior Ministry to purchase new machinery for e-passports.

Qazi further detailed that six new printers will come for printing of machine-readable passports to overcome the delay in the passport printing process.

He also assured the NA body that all queries related to passport printing would be resolved until September.

Responding to a query regarding the capacity and capability of the Passport Department, he said that additional counters have been set up in passport offices.

He added that the passport system was 20 years old while 20 printers out of which 13 have been functional for years. Subsequently, he said that the increased demand for passports led to the system breakdown.

"The issue of lamination papers was due to a dollar price increase, which has also been resolved," said the officer.

Taking up another issue in the session, he said: “12,000 fake Pakistani passports were received from Saudi Arabia only, and the fake passports issue needs attention”.