ISLAMABAD: Following Interior Minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi’s directions, Zonal passport offices in Karachi and Lahore have begun to function 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To better serve the people, passport offices in Awami Markat in Karachi and Garden Town in Lahore will soon be open 24 hours a day.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated on Sunday that at least one passport office in each Lahore and Karachi will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to better serve the public and increase access to passport services.
In a post on X, Mr Naqvi stated that the move will make it easy for everyone to obtain passport services at any time.
“To make things easier for the public, at least one passport office will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week in both Lahore and Karachi.” “This will make it easier for everyone to get passports at any time,” he stated.
The change is intended to dramatically lessen the pressure on current passport offices, as well as application wait times.
The trend coincides with an increase in the number of persons seeking for passports.
According to informed sources, the passports and immigration department now has a capacity to produce 20 to 25 thousand passports per day while receiving around 40 thousand applications per day, resulting in a passport backlog of approximately 0.8 million.
They stated the interior minister had also taken notice of the massive backlog and that actions were being done under his authority to increase printing capacity. They stated that tenders had already been issued for the printing of e-passports and machine-readable passport machines.
According to reports, one of the reasons for the delay in passport issuing was the release of cash for the acquisition of lamination paper and other key supplies.
They stated a bill would be introduced in parliament shortly to grant the passports and immigration department the status of Authority, so that the institution, which earns billions of rupees every year, is not hampered by delays in the flow of cash.
Iqra Khan