MARDAN, Aug 27: A passport office will start functioning here before Ramazan, according to director-general (passports) Brig (retd) Mian Khalid Habib. He was talking to journalists at the regional offices of his department here on Monday.

Brig (retd) Habib said that more than 50 per cent of the applications received at the Peshawar offices of his department were filed by people belonging to the Mardan and Swabi districts. He said after the opening of a passport office in Mardan they would not have to travel to Peshawar to get their passports.

Mr Habib said that the new system was fully automated, which would save the people from cheats.

He said that at present 16 passport offices were functioning across the country, while four more would be opened in the Frontier province, in Timergara, Chitral, Hangu and Buner.