Around 16.5 million applicants await issuance of Pakistani passport

ISLAMABAD – The delay in the issuance of passports has exacerbated as around 16.5 million applicants are awaiting their passports which have yet to be issued.

The staggering figure was quoted by DG of Immigration and Passports, Mustafa Jamal Qazi regarding the ‘normal’ category of passports to the lawmakers during a meeting. 

The only positive news told to the lawmakers during the meeting was that there was no backlog in the overseas category; however, the normal category passports faced incessant delay.

Confirming that the backlog has skyrocketed, the official informed the Senate panel that the Passport and Immigration Department had earned Rs45 billion last year.

After listening to the figures and the issues regarding the delay of passports, the chairman of the committee, Senator Faisal Saleem Reh­man, directed the DG Passport and Immigration to provide details on official and diplomatic passports in the next meeting. 

It is to be highlighted that the issue of delay in the printing of passports has been impacting thousands of Pakistanis for over a year; the shortage of lamination paper had triggered a backlog regarding the printing of passports causing inconvenience for citizens and youngsters who are leaving the country in large numbers.

At present, mostly urgent and e-passports are being delivered while those who want their passport through the standard process either need to wait or pull some strings.

The basic reason behind the backlog is the fact that the government of Pakistan imports the paper from France, but the consignment was delayed owing to a foreign currency problem.

There have been multiple efforts made in the past to clear the backlog but the issue persists to this day on top of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have left the country in recent years to look for better employment opportunities overseas.