KARACHI, March 23: There is traffic chaos on Sharea Faisal where the reasonably vast edifice of the Awami Markaz stands in the midst of other garish constructions. The narrow side lane is packed with cars, and more cars and motorcycles are trying to nudge their way in, searching for any free space to park their vehicle and get on with the day’s agenda. An irate security personnel mans the entrance of the [dug up] parking lot, shooing away the onslaught of cars to the left and right ordering them to move on. ‘Where do I park my car?’ Asks an enraged driver who has taken two rounds of the entire main road in search of space, but he is answered with an unhelpful, ‘wherever you find space. Just go away from here!’
When the present government began the long-drawn procedure of electronically registering the people of this country in the year 2000, little consideration was taken about the difficulties involved. The war against terror demanded electronic; one touch update of every potential terrorist and we were going to comply. The masses -– nearly 70 per cent beings illiterate -– would of course, follow the line. The issues that the CNICs created is a separate matter for discussion.
Then came the ordeal of the Machine Readable Passports. With the exit and entry ways of a country being crucial monitoring points for potential terrorists, it became necessary that we also comply with electronically readable passports, which can supposedly not be tampered with. And so began another nightmare for the masses, hastening to get their travel documents in order.
As all diktats, this decision of the present regime was also arbitrarily taken and one facility for each city was made available for the people to process their passports. Karachi being not only the largest city of our country but being larger than 87 countries of the UN with a population of over 10.4 million people, was again disregarded where people’s comfort is concerned. With the previous office in Saddar reportedly undergoing renovation, another one, shacked up inside the Awami Markaz was thought sufficient to cater to the entire 10.4 million people scrambling to get their passports updated. Any logical mind can estimate the subsequent disorder, when a thousand [a minimum estimate] people of varying eminence converge on a daily basis in one makeshift office inside a mall.
Walking up the steps and inside the metal detector entrance of the once prominent structure of Awami Markaz -– one of the leftover projects from the BB government -– there is a sea of confusion. Manning the reception desk is a diminutive individual who sits behind a board stating; ‘passport and immigration information.’ This poor chap is the only source of information for the thousands coming in for their passport up-gradation. No written instructions; no signboards; no guidance whatsoever. As opposed to this one ‘official’, there are hundreds of ‘unofficial’ helpers [agents] swarming the place from the roadside to where the lines begin within the office. They offer varying ways of easing the process. The patent offer is for Rs1,000 [including ‘official’ kickback] which includes; no standing in cues for a token; no waiting period and not even the need to submit all requisite documents. In short, theirs is an offer of ‘no suffering’ otherwise experienced by the throng that goes through the official rigmarole. These agents do not hide themselves and just like in the old passport office, they do a thriving business, proudly claiming, ‘Of course, the Passport officials know about us. But they don’t care!’
For the simple souls who take the honest route, standing in an airless environment and packed like sardines in a can, the ordeals are many. One gentleman who took a day off from work and went through the entire process of standing in cues for the bank challan, the ‘finger printing’, the photograph [with retina scanning, of course], the submission with loads of requisite documents, was told -– when he went to collect his passport -– that the person taking the forms at the time of submission hadn’t punched in correct information and hence the entire procedure would have to be redone.
Another lady, after being in line since 8am was finally told at 4pm that the ‘system’ had broken down and she would have to come again for the final submission.
What kind of a set-up is this? One ramshackle arrangement for over 10 million people! All office going applicants have to take days off -– and Karachi has the highest working class population, something which can be gauged by our contribution to the GNP. No eating or relieving is allowed during the day -– if you eat and go to the bathroom, you lose your place in the queue. And with the limited computer faculties of the collecting officer, there is always the threat that the applicant might need to return because of ‘insufficient information’ at the time of submission.
If only the regime would consider the common man’s wellbeing above other agendas, ours would be a happier state. Couldn’t there be more passport offices in this vast city? Couldn’t the officials of the passport department do more to guide people? And now with the office shifting back to the ‘old premises’ is the process going to be any different? Our population is still on the rise. Why can’t both these centres -– Awami Markaz and Saddar — remain operational? If only the people’s distress would become the ruling factor of the regime, instead of the ‘international requirement’ factor, the populace would not feel so exploited.
