Pakistanis abroad will soon get facility of machine-readable passports and visas in European cities of Manchester, Birmingham, Barcelona and Milan.
According to an official at Passport Office, the Directorate of Passports has already nominated its technical staff which is set to leave for these cities to deploy Machine-Readable Passport (MRP) and Machine- Readable Visa (MRV) facilities in a month.
He said large number of Pakistanis which reside in these cities will benefit from the new facilities.
Under the directions of Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the directorate is taking steps to upgrade its facilities at foreign missions vigorously. All non-machine readable passports (Non-MRP) are to be phased out globally by November 2015 in accordance with the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Presently, machine readable passport facility is available to Pakistanis at more than 20 missions abroad.
The Directorate of Passports is also sending its System Incharge Dilawar Hussain to start providing MRP facility in Beijing.
The Supreme Court had issued directions on the application of an expatriate Pakistani Muhammad Azam Khawaja when he drew the court’s attention towards non-availability of machine readable passports facility at Pakistan’s embassy in China.
