National Assembly standing committee on interior on Friday said that backlog of pending 80,000 passport applications must be cleared within two weeks. The committee, which met here with Abdul Qadir Patel in the chair, directed directorate general, immigration and passports, to clear the backlog on priority basis.
The DG apprised the committee that fifty-three regional passport offices are operational in the country to facilitate the people in getting passports, while twelve passport offices have also been established abroad for overseas Pakistanis. 9.455 million passports have been issued during the last 6 years, he said, adding that the existing passport printers and laminators have outlived their utility and are required to be replaced by new ones and department has initiated tendering process for acquiring new equipment.
The committee members emphasised that the passport office may take stringent measures to cleanout 'tout mafia' roaming outside the regional passport offices minting money from the innocent desirous applicants with the connivance of employees of the Passport Office.
The committee directed the interior ministry to give permission to directorate of passport for recruiting staff so that staff shortage problem could be resolved. The committee members asked the ministry to provide UN inquiry report on Benazir Bhutto assassination to the committee. The ministry would also provide report to the committee on the sad incident occurred in Hazara Division.-PR