KARACHI, Sept 23: The rift between the passport department and Nadra (National Database Registration Authority) has deepened causing delay in the launch of the machine-readable passports (MRPs), well-placed sources told Dawn on Thursday.
Nadra had undertaken the pilot project of MRPs on Sept 15 and hooked up its centre in Karachi with Islamabad database. The new passport books had been handed over to the office of the director general, Passports and Immigration, in Islamabad but the same have not yet been given to Nadra.
Sources said that under an understanding between the two departments of the interior ministry, Nadra had been asked to establish three centres in major cities for the issuance of MRPs. Officials of the rank of assistant director of the passport department would be at the disposal of Nadra to issue the MRPs from Nadra's centres.
The Nadra had written a letter to the DG passports and sought new passport books but was told that the request could not be entertained immediately though the new books had been received from the Security Printing Press. The written reply from the passport department did not mention any reason, the sources claimed.
However, the sources said that the passport department appeared not satisfied with the number of centres set up by Nadra for the purpose and believed that there should be at least 27 centres across the country to launch the project.
The sources said that Nadra did not agree and wanted to follow the directives of the former interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, that the project be launched with the establishment of only three centres in major cities. The centres have been set up in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and Nadra intends to increase the number gradually to cover rest of the country.
The sources apprehended that the issuance of MRPs would hit further delay as officials in passport department were not cooperating with Nadra. The hierarchy in passport department had hinted that the process might not take a start before January next.
Nadra officials have already imparted training to assistant directors of passport department in accordance with the understanding between the two departments and under the directives of the ministry. However, the passport department has not directed its ADs to move to Nadra centres for receiving applications.
Meanwhile, uncertainty prevailed over the future of passport officials sitting at the Saddar centre. Some of them fear that they might be laid off after the introduction of new technology for the MRPs. They believe that Nadra would eventually take over the whole department.
However, a spokesman for Nadra has already dispelled the impression that it was taking over the department. "We are just a facilitating agency and the matter of issuance of passports will remain with the passport and immigration department," he had categorically stated.
More perturbed appeared to be the agents sitting outside the passport office to help an applicant fill up the application form. They said they would not move to Awami Markaz if the passport office was shifted to Nadra centre there.
The agents also fear a sharp decline in their daily earning because the process of acquiring an MRP involves paperless procedure as adopted for the computerized NICs. On the other hand, the authorities believed that the paperless procedures would help reduce chances of forgery, most often blamed on the agents allegedly in nexus with passport officials.
