Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced on Saturday to extend the validity of passports of Pakistanis to 10 years, earlier the validity was five years of period.
Addressing the launching ceremony of Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, Malik said that all passports that would be made after September 15 will have 10-year validity.
The extension in passport validity could be an advice from Immigration experts.
“We have requested Immigration experts to give advice on improving passport system of the country,” Malik added.
Adding he said, “All of their suggestions would be regarded and it would be ensured that there should a well thought out execution plan on them.”
Talking about IBMS, he said that this new identification system has been developed with the cooperation of NADRA through which Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would have an access of NADRA records for identification.
Malik maintained that the IBMS had been designed according to Pakistani immigration laws and helps prevent illegal entry, use of counterfeit documents, human smuggling and other travel fraud.
The minister further added that IBMS has been equipped with technologies like advance fingerprint matching, specialised handling for different categories of travelers and scalability for integration with other national databases.
“No one would be allowed to play with the fate of the people of Pakistan. There is a third power (foreign elements) that intends to destabilise the country by creating differences between Shia and Sunni”, he said.
Rehman Malik, while highlighting the issue of Mobile Phone sims, said, “We would not allow to run the business of illegal mobile phone sims as government is determined to take action against the fake sim holders”.
Mobile phone service was temporarily stopped in the country on Eid day to avoid any untoward situation, he added.
Malik announces validity of passport upto 10 years
