01 March 2005	Tuesday	19 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, Feb 28: The passport office at the Awami Markaz will remain open for public from 8am to 9pm with its staff working in two shifts from March 3.

Deputy Director of Passport Office, Ghulam Mujtaba Joyo, told Dawn on Monday that an order to this effect had been issued by the director-general of the Passports and Immigration Department, Brig. Mian Khalid, due to a large number of applicants.

He said the first shift would work from 8am to 3pm and tokens would be issued to applicants between 9am and 1pm. "The second shift will start at 3pm and will work till 9pm, while tokens will be issued between 3pm and 6pm," he added.

The deputy director, who is also holding the additional charge of the director, said the National Bank branch at the Awami Markaz would also remain open for public dealing till 6pm.

He said the passport office was entertaining an average of 1,200 applications for the machine readable passports. "An equal number of the MRPs are also being issued daily", he added.

To a question, Mr Joyo said that the renovation work was still in progress at the passport office on Sharah-i-Iraq, Saddar, and it would be completed by the end of June. As per plan, there would be four regional passport offices at the Saddar offices.

Assistant director (administration) Irshadur Rehman, said as many as 40 staffers would be available in one shift. The urgent passport section would also work in two shifts, and tokens would be issued between 9am and 11 pm, and on Fridays, from 3pm to 5 pm.