Lahore: Citizens have been worried for several months due to over 550,000 passports pending in the passport department.
The Passport and Immigration Department failed to provide machine readable and e-passports on time. Hundreds of Pakistanis living in the United States, Britain, Canada, and other countries have been waiting for their passports for several months due to over 5,500,000 pending passports.
Those wishing to go for Hajj and Umrah are also suffering from mental agony due to not getting thousands of passports on time. The victims say that the Passport and Immigration Department is issuing passports only to those with urgent and fast track fees. It has been 3 months and the passport has not yet been received. Had to go for Umrah in Ramadan, Ramadan is about to end, passport not found.
On the other hand, the passport authorities say that the delay is due to the depletion of stocks of ink and lamination paper. Both items have arrived, after which all passports will be cleared by June.
