KARACHI, July 2: The applicants for the machine readable passports (MRPs), with single names, are faced with a unique situation as there single names appear in the column of surname, while the column of given name remains blank.

The situation is leading the applicants to a great deal of problems when they apply for visas as there passports do not contain their given names.

An applicant, Zaibun Nisa, told Dawn that she actually did not have any name in the column of given name in the MRP (No. AA531041) issued to her on May 28. My name appeared in the column of surname. Zaibun Nisa is my given name, its not my surname, she says.

The 65-year-old woman said she wanted to proceed to Canada to meet her relatives. How would I get a visa when I actually don’t have a name in my passport, she wondered.

Ms Zaibun Nisa said that she took the matter up to the senior officials of the passport office, but to no avail. Now they tell me to deposit a fee of Rs2,100 afresh and they would get her passport corrected accordingly, she said. Why should I be subjected to pay the fee twice as this is not my fault? she asks.

Meanwhile, officials at the passport office said it was a flaw in the software prepared by the Nadra. The computer does not proceed with the application unless and until it is not fed with the surname of the applicant, they said.

The officials said the first page of the MRP was apparently designed to meet the visa requirement of certain countries. The visas of these countries have the column of the surname and given name.However, they said, a large number of people did not have any surname in Pakistan. Besides, there was a large number of people with only one name.

The officials said as far as the visas of certain countries were concerned, if a person had a single name, then that name was placed in the column of surname, while FNU (first name unknown) was placed in the column of first name. But we don’t have any such protocol in our software, they added.

The officials said they were advised by their superiors to break the name of the applicant if he had two parts of his name. The first part of the name is placed in the column of given name, while the last part was placed in the column of surname. But in case an applicant has a single name, we have been advised to place the name of his or her father’s name in the column of the surname to avoid any further complications, they added.

Interestingly the computer printout, given to the applicant for putting his signature after the data punching, has the column of Applicant’s Full Name, and it does not contain the columns of given name and surname, which later appear in the passports, the officials said.