I WITNESSED a security lapse at the passport office, Garden Town, Lahore, on my visit on March 3. I was shocked to see the arrangement in a high-profile government office under the ministry of interior, where there were no metal detectors in the hands of any security personnel, and even no walk-through gates, nor even X-ray machines to scan luggage. I do not know if there are any surveillance cameras and whether they are functioning.

In the background of recent terrorist activities in Pakistan, this shows how non-serious our government is about the situation.

The security guards are there only to harass the applicants. The virus of corruption is all around, starting with parking-stand boys asking a visitor to pay Rs1,000 for a VIP treatment at the passport office.

They have links inside, and the staff puts them in front of the step-one where they take pictures and issue tokens. If you pay more, you get more services.

For instance, they will go to the computer room and call your number out-of-turn at step-3 data entry and at the interview step where they collect the documents.

The staff is not helpful at all. In the last step called interview the only formality they do is to see the original reference documents before accepting the application. They are rude and use bad language and even don’t spare women and the elderly.

These people only listen to you if you have contacts with the peon or agents crawling outside the passport office. The use of mobile phones inside the premises by the office staff should be banned.

Muzafarul Haq

Lahore

Published in Dawn March 7th , 2015

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