TOBA TEK SINGH: The passport office in the city is being closed for at least a month from Saturday (today) as the roof of its dilapidated building developed cracks and during the recent rains and water seeped into the roof. The structure looks dangerous and it is posing a threat to the life of the the staff.

The passport office in-charge, Muhammad Yasir, said on Friday that the staff had been sent to the offices in Sahiwal and Jhang temporarily and during this period the applicants belonging to Pirmahal and Kamalia tehsils will apply for and collect their passports from the Sahiwal passport office.

The applicants from Toba Tek Singh and Gojra tehsils will have to go to Jhang to collect their passports for at least a month.

The local passport office had started functioning in 2016 in a building meant for a gym owned by the district council.

The building was handed over to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) by the district government to set up a temporary passport office till its new building was constructed adjacent to the existing Nadra office.

Since then the passport office building could not be built and now the higher authorities of National Database and Registration Authority have found that if the dilapidated structure was not repaired immediately it could cause destruction and danger to the lives of the staff.

Yasir also told that the district council had been requested to get the building repaired within a month so that the passport office could resume its functions here.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2019