According to The Express Tribune, Pakistani nationals are having trouble obtaining new passports because there is a lack of lamination paper. As per the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGI&P) of Pakistan, the passports’ lamination paper is imported from France.
The publication was informed by Qadir Yar Tiwana, the Director General for Media of the Ministry of Interior, which is the parent ministry of DGI&P, that the government was making every effort to resolve the problem.
“The situation will soon be under control and passport issuance will continue as normal,” Tiwana mentioned in conversation with The Express Tribune.
Thousands of Pakistanis who were planned international trip have been impacted by the scarcity. Numerous students have attributed the situation to the incompetence of the Pakistani government, citing impending admissions deadlines at colleges throughout the globe.
“I was all set to move to Dubai for work soon. My family and I were beyond ecstatic that our fortunes would finally change but the mismanagement of DGI&P seems to have cost me my golden ticket out of poverty and this country,” Gul, a resident of Punjab mentioned to the newspaper.
Peshawar student Hira claimed she was scheduled to be in Italy in October after her student visa was just issued.
“However, the unavailability of a passport robbed me of an opportunity to leave,” she continued, saying it was unjust that she was having to foot the bill for an incompetent government agency.
Peshawar resident Muhammad Imran claimed that the passport department was misleading applicants rather than providing them with accurate information, and he was fed up with their constant delays.
“Ever since September the passport office has been stating that your passport will come next week but multiple weeks have passed and they keep repeating the same,” Imran averred according to The Express Tribune.
Under the condition of anonymity, a senior passport office official in Peshawar informed The Express Tribune that they could only process 12 to 13 passports every day, as opposed to 3,000 to 4,000 passports previously.
Interestingly, there have been previous impending crises in Pakistan. The DGI&P’s debt to printers and a scarcity of lamination sheets caused the printing of Pakistani passports to stop in 2013.
