PESHAWAR, March 11: Introduction of computerised passports has eliminated the business of fake passports, an official has claimed. Regional Passport Office Deputy Director Mohammad Irfan Khan told APP on Saturday that verification of suspicious people was carried out with the assistance of various government agencies. He said 140,000 passports had been issued since the establishment of the new regional passport office in the city.

He said around 550 computerised passports are issued daily by the office, of which 80 per cent were secured by people from the settled areas and 20 per cent from the tribal areas. He said 90 per cent of the applicants got their passports for immigration to Arab countries.

He said a regional office would shortly be set up in Mardan. He said that about 300 of the 550 passports issued daily were obtained by the people from Mardan and Swabi. He said that the initiation of computerised database system for passports, which was centrally linked and could be checked in any regional office in the country, had eliminated the chances of issuance of bogus passports.—APP