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| July 03, 2006 | Monday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 6, 1427 |
Passport office a problem house
RAWALPINDI, July 2: The city’s ill-situated and understaffed passport office has turned into a problem house for the applicants, where they have to wait in long queues for hours in hot and humid weather to obtain a token which marks the beginning of the tiresome procedure.
The present passport office building in New Katarian faces a girls college and is yards away from the main Pir Wadhai road. Traffic jams have become a matter of routine now after the shifting of passport office in the present building and it is difficult for one to find a parking space nearby.
The space which could have been used for parking purposes has been occupied by the passport agents. The girls studying in the college right in front of the passport office feel embarrassed as they have to find a way through swarm of people twice a day close to the college gate when they come in the morning and leave in the afternoon.
Ridiculously, a so-called “urgent passport” is given to the applicant after five days while the ordinary passport is given on the 12th day, and that too is not for sure. In many cases the people have to waste another working day to know that their passports were still not ready. However, things can be different if the services of a passport agent are acquired. An additional payment of Rs2000 to Rs3000 can ensure the issuance of a passport in one day.
The people generally do not know how to start the procedure for obtaining a passport as no board providing information and guide- lines for the applicants has been placed outside the office. The applicants need to come to the passport office after depositing passport fee in the designated branch of a bank far away from the passport office.
The procedure for submission of an application for passport starts from issuance of a token for which the people have to wait in a queue under the sun, where even the facility of a fan is not available. Those who succeed in obtaining tokens, in other words get a ticket to enter the passport office building. Thumb and finger impressions and photographs of the applicants are taken in one hall while the data entry process and checking of applicant’s name in the black list is done in another one.
The applicant has to wait for long for his turn at every stage until his token number is displayed on the screen. The shortage of staff at the photo section and data entry point adds to their woes.
“It is humiliating for the people to wait for so long in this hot weather and that too without a fan,” Mushtaq Ahmad, a homoeopathic doctor said while talking to this scribe during a survey. He regretted that even after paying thousands of rupees as passport fee, one has to sit for hours to submit an application, as if he has come to get a charity.
He said the Supreme Court had recently taken suo motu notice of the poor arrangements in the banks for those coming to deposit utility bills and had asked the banks to make proper seating arrangements for them. “The Court should also take notice of this situation,” he remarked.
Amjad Ali, a businessman said the passport office building should have appropriate parking space, proper seating arrangement and appropriate number of staff to facilitate the public. He observed that small branches of designated banks for depositing passport fee should also be set up in the premises of the passport office building.
Asad Siddiqui, an advocate, said there was no justification for giving an urgent passport in five days. “Urgent means urgent,” he remarked. He stressed that the capacity of producing passports at the headquarters should be enhanced in accordance with the requirements.
A lady, who requested not to mention her name, said she used to live in Sukkur in the past and now is settled in Rawalpindi. She said her identity card mentions her permanent address in Sukkur and temporary address in Rawalpindi. She said she wasted her whole day to get a passport and passed through all the phases of thumb and finger impression, digital photograph and data entry and at the last stage she has been told to bring the registry of her house. She said there should be some information counter to guide the people before submission of applications.
A bank officer said he had been told to collect his passport today but after waiting for hours he has been told that there was some problem with the passport printing machine and his passport was not ready. “It is difficult for people like us to spare so much time to collect passports. I am not sure as yet when will my passport be ready,” he helplessly said.
The Assistant Director Passports Raja Muhammad Ashraf told Dawn that around 600 Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) were being given by the Rawalpindi office every day.
He conceded that the building was small and there was a shortage of staff. He said there were only five people in the office for data entry — a time consuming exercise. He said two of them too were on leave. There were only two people in the photo section. He said the passport office will shortly be shifted to a comparatively spacious building near Haji Camp. He said a plot stretched over four kanals had been purchased where the passport office will construct its own building in future.
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