Ordinary passport issuance across the country has come to a standstill in the wake of the held up supply of US lamination material causing hardships to the people as thousands may be deprived of performing Umra.
Sources told that the US Company, after necessary quality control checking, has stopped the supply of lamination sheet, which is used for coating on the Pakistan passports and this culminated into the delay in issuance of passports to the general public.
Director General Passport and Immigration, Brigadier (Retd) Khalid Habib told that his department faced difficulties in making passports due to the held up consignments of lamination materials, while the limited number of passports in stocks were being used for the issuance of urgent and diplomatic passports only.
He said that a five-year contract for the supply of lamination material existed with the US Company. He further said that the lamination materials would start reaching Pakistan in the next few days.