ISLAMABAD – The interior ministry dismissed reports about the delay in the issuance of passports on Wednesday, terming the reports as baseless.
The ministry said in a statement that false information was being disseminated on social media about passports being printed late adding that the Directorate General Immigration and Passports (DGI&P) is regularly issuing passports every day as per routine.
The ministry emphasized that passports in the fast category track category are printed within three days, while urgent ones take five days, adding that regular passports, which are not in the fast-track or urgent categories, take about a month to be printed but the printing time would be reduced to 21 days soon after the procurement of lamination papers.
The ministry stated that a significant amount of lamination papers needed for passports is expected to be received by the Directorate General Immigration and Passports (DGI&P) soon.
Earlier, DGI&P had confirmed that there was a nationwide shortage of passports last month due to a shortfall of lamination paper, which is used in passports; the paper has now been procured from France.
As far as the fee structure for different categories is concerned, the normal fee for a normal 36-page passport with a 5-year validity is around Rs4, 000 and for urgent it is around Rs6,000.
Meanwhile, the normal fee for a normal 36-page passport with 10-year validity is around Rs 5,500, and for urgent it is around Rs 8,500.
Similarly, the normal fee for normal 72 pages passport with a 5-year validity is around Rs6, 500 and urgent is around Rs10,000, while the normal fee for a normal 72 pages passport with a 10-year validity is around Rs 9,250 and urgent is around Rs14,500.
Due to multiple reasons including the tough economic challenges being faced in Pakistan by the citizens, tens of thousands of Pakistanis and especially young lot rushed to the passport offices to seek better opportunities abroad, prompting delays in passport issuance.
