ISLAMABAD – The country’s top economic body has approved additional funds for establishment of Passport Processing Centers at Tehsil level across the country
The decision was made during the meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) which approved funds worth 35 million for 30 administrative units across the country; the meeting was chaired by minister for Finance Ishaq Dar.
The decision to establish the Passport Processing Centers would help people from far flung areas who had to travel to nearby cities to get the travel document.
The decision coincides with the announcement by Director General Immigration and Passports regarding the revised time needed to get a passport for all categories.
According to the notification, the delivery time for normal, urgent and fast-track passport services has been reduced to 10 days, four days and two days respectively.
The previous delivery times for normal passport was 21 days, for urgent passport it was seven days while four days were needed to receive passport through fast-track service.
The reduction in delivery times has relieved the applicants who had been facing delays due to backlog as well as slow processing speed.
Due to multiple reasons including inflation and cash-strapped economy, there has been increase in number of applicants seeking Pakistani passport to fly off to other countries mainly gulf and European states.
During an earlier meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, it was informed that over Rs 26 billion had been deposited in the national exchequer with the issuance of 4.5 million passports to date.
