MRP operations: I&P Directorate staff to stage protest against government move

The employees of Immigration and Passport (I&P) Directorate have planned to stage a protest against the government move to hand over Machine Readable Passport (MRP) operations at Pakistan missions abroad to the consular staff. Officials of Immigration and Passport (I&P) Directorate told Business Recorder that they will lock down the Directorate in protest against the government decision to hand MRP operation at Pakistan missions abroad to consular staff.
This will hamper MRP operations inside the country as well as Pakistani missions abroad. According to a letter written by former Director General I&P to Ministry of Interior, the issuance of passports/visas and other travel documents come under the domain of Ministry of Interior as per rules 18 sub-rule 5 clauses (a). (b) and (c) of schedule II of the rule of Business 1973. These rules do not confer similar authority to any other ministry or division including ministry of foreign affairs, the letter said.
The letter pointed out that the move is neither practicable nor feasible as unlike manual passports, MRP system is an integrated system and cannot be run independently by consular staff at Pakistani missions abroad. If the system installed at foreign missions is handed over to the consular staff it may hamper the core database server as well as jeopardise the system installed within the country, the letter further said.
The introduction of MRP system has changed the whole scenario as now experienced officers with technical experts are required to run the MRP/MRV operations, the letter added. Printing and issuance of passports is centralised at passport headquarters Islamabad where a central database has been established, the letter argued.
The former DG warned that equipment installed at foreign missions has proprietary configuration and direct linkage with core equipment installed at I&P Directorate with legitimate access to the main database servers, which cannot be shared as it will make the whole system vulnerable.
The letter further stated that the personnel deployed in foreign missions are IT specialists especially trained on MRP/MRV system with relevant multiple years of experience within Pakistan. "If the MRP operations at Pakistan missions abroad are handed over to the consular staff, Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hire technical persons on the market based salaries, which will further increase burden on the exchequer," it said.
Machine Readable Passport/Visa project was conceived in 2004 to ensure compliance with international standards, especially with reference to automation of passport and visa issuance, centralised database and integrity cum confidentiality of the travel documents. The MRP operations are running locally and in foreign missions; and the Directorate has so far issued over 20 million MRP passports from regional passport offices and Pakistani missions abroad.