Non-availability of machine readable passport: overseas Pakistanis may face serious problem, National Assembly body told

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Tuesday cautioned of serious crisis to emerge in coming few months for overseas Pakistanis in various countries particularly in Saudi Arabia for not having machine readable passports, as many countries have refused to stamp visas on the manual passports.
Chaudhry stated this while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, in which he also sought help of the parliamentary panel to expedite the work on issuance of machine readable passports in the foreign missions. "We need to work on war-footings otherwise, a serious crisis could emerge in the coming five to six months...we've been informed that Saudi Arabia and some other countries will not allow stamping of visas on the manual passports," he told the panel, adding it needs to take immediate measures to increase issuing of machine readable passports to the overseas Pakistanis.
In his observations, chairman of the committee, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, assured the committee's possible assistance, saying the officials of the concerned ministry and departments would be convened to discuss the issue, besides taking it up with the government. He asked the officials of the Foreign Office to give its suggestions in-writing to the committee so that the issue of passports could be discussed with departments concerned.
Committee member, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, while referring to the recent statements by Prime Minster's Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, posed a question regarding the country's foreign policy and the grounds on which it is framed. "We need to know where and who actually form our foreign policy?. Who and where the political and strategic interest based on our foreign policy are defined?," Achakzai further asked.
While responding, the Foreign Secretary stated that not a single institution in any part of the world chalks out the foreign policy of a country, rather various institutions gave their inputs in foreign policy making. "In Pakistan too, we have inputs from various institutions on the same way. State Department gets input from Pentagon and other relevant departments," he said, adding in United States, the President is the final authority and in Pakistan it is the Prime Minister who approves the foreign policy as the final authority.
However, he stated that a detailed briefing could be given to the committee on the foreign policy making in the next meeting. Earlier, the committee members expressed concerns over the problems being faced to the overseas Pakistanis in various counties and urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take every step to facilitate the diaspora.
Achakzai pointed out that Pakistanis mostly the working class in the UAE starting to line up in queues early morning at 3:00 am for getting passports and other documents from Pakistan's Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Consulate in Dubai, but they get back at the noon without getting their problems resolved. The committee was given a detailed briefing by the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding Pakistan's missions abroad and their responsibilities.