Holding former bosses of the Interior Ministry responsible for the delay in issuance of passports, Immigration and Passports Office Director General Zulfiqar Cheema on Tuesday apprised the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that former interior minister Rehman Malik, in violation of all rules and laws and for wanting to award the tender of supply of laminate patches for passports to his “favourite” company had caused a delay in the process that in turn provided an opportunity to the mafia to exploit passport seekers and take bribes to the tune of Rs 25,000 for issuance of a single passport.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Saddiqui of the IHC resumed hearing into the case filed by a French company against the award of the tender to an American firm.
Cheema, who was appointed by the interim government with the task to pull the Immigration and Passport Office out of the severe crisis, appeared before the court on notice.
Cheema told the court that on the directions of the Interior Ministry, the passport office had also issued hundreds of blue passports to unauthorised people.
“Even cycle-puncture menders were issued blue passports on the orders of the Interior Ministry,” he said, adding however that after assuming charge, he had ordered the cancellation of all such passports and “operation cleansing” was underway.
He said the former interior minister wanted to award the tender to his “favourite” company, adding that Malik had summoned the project director to his house and directed him to award the tender to that company.
The newly-appointed DG further submitted that when he assumed charge, the passport office was about to be closed down. However, Cheema said to ease the backlog, he got the prime minister’s approval to keep purchasing lamination papers from the firm, which had been providing the lamination papers since 2004. “The passport office’s performance is now improving.”
Meanwhile, the American company also requested the court to provide it a chance to become party to the case.
Upon this, the court accepted its request and adjourned further proceedings until May 28.
Sameer Baig, a representative of Reliance International, through his counsel Salman Akram Raja, had alleged that the Interior Ministry had awarded a contract worth billions of rupees to “their favourite” firm.
According to the petition, the DGIP on February 19 had invited requests for proposals (RFP) from the pre-qualified firms including the petitioner’s company. The petition also alleged that the passport office authorities violated several clauses of procurement rules to clear the way for awarding the contract.