- Hundreds of citizens complain delay of four to five months in passport delivery
- Agents take Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 for an illegal but early delivery of passports
It has been two long hours that Amjad has been standing in a never ending queue at the passport office at Abbott Road. As he sweats in the scorching summer heat, Amjad says that he applied for a passport five months ago. The man was told that he would get his passport in two months but till date there is no clue of his travel document.
As Amjad slowly nears the information window in his queue, he witnesses that a man who applied for a passport on the same date as he did, bypasses the queue and goes straight in the office and after a few minutes comes back with his fresh passport. Infuriated, Amjad abandons the queue and approaches that man with hurried steps to enquire about the matter. The case turns out that the man had paid Rs 5,000 to an agent to get the job done in 10 days.
“Your passport is not ready yet. Come again after a few days,” is the persistent reply for an ordinary citizen of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from the passport offices in the city. Four to five months of delay in passport delivery is a routine matter for the passport officials. However, if you are wealthy enough to pay a few thousand rupees to one of the many agents who roam the vicinity, you can get your passport earlier than the ordinary citizens like Amjad would get.
A few months ago, the passport office opted for a short-cut to passport renewal; the officials used to stamp the passport on the spot, extending its expiry date. It helped in speeding up the process for at least those seeking renewal of their passports. However, the practice was discontinued in favour of printing of a fresh passport copy.
Hundreds of citizens at the Abbott Road and Garden Town passport offices have been complaining about the delay in obtaining their passports. The citizens who got their work done through agents told Pakistan Today that the touts worked in close liaison with the passport officials.
A citizen said that while he was escorted inside the office, his agent bribed everyone that passed his way inside the office; from the security guard to a senior official inside the office at Abbott Road.
Passport office sources told Pakistan Today that these agents had a tightly knitted network and they operated in connivance with the officials concerned. They said that it was impossible for an agent to get away with a passport without bribing the high-ups.
Moreover, sources said that officials in the passport office were not scared of anyone and indulged in corruption at ease as they knew how to get out of trouble without getting affected. He said that a proof of the influence the high-ups have was that they had stayed unaffected despite publishing of several news reports in the media.
Sources said that an enquiry was called when Shahid Iqbal, assistant director of passport offices, was found involved in illegally making passports of 11 Afghan nationals. They said that in spite of being found guilty of the charges Iqbal was not dismissed or tried under the law – he was merely transferred after his arrest and the matter was brushed under the carpet.
Pakistan Today observed that agents at the passport offices charge between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 for an early delivery of passports.
While some have had their work done through agents and several continue to await the delivery of their passports, Abbott Road Passport Office Assistant Director Shahzad has little to say about the matter. “We have eliminated the agent mafia in passport offices. No passport official is involved in any sort of malpractice,” he said, but hastened to add that the delay in passports was across the country and the government was working to resolve the issue.