Passport office misspells name

E-Paper | March 15, 2026

I AM a law graduate from a university in London and intend to become a barrister. I am fortunate enough to be admitted to the Lincolns Inn and my classes are to commence from Sept 28.

In order to get the visa, I was issued a passport by the regional passport office in Peshawar with a spelling mistake in my name.

Actually, the person in charge has misspelled my name by missing the first A in Muhammad. Now my legal name and the name on my passport do not match.

It has caused me a great trouble and I am running from pillar to post to fix the matter.

I wonder how the passport office staff can misspell the name Muhammad. Now with a few days in hand, I have applied for a fresh urgent passport which would be issued to me within seven days. Once I get the passport, I will be intimating my law school to issue me my CAS letter, on the basis of which I would be issued a visa by the British high commission.

The CAS letter, which has the student’s passport number, is a pre-requisite for visa application. Furthermore, the visa application process itself takes about three weeks to complete under normal circumstances.

The entire procedure has become too much cumbersome for me. If I do not get my fresh passport and on the basis of that passport my CAS letter and visa, I may not be able to join the upcoming session for which I have already paid my fee.

In short, the misspelling of my name may cost me my career, or at least one precious year. I have received an email from my school, stating that I should attend the institute for my formal registration on Sept 13, which is by no means possible.

The matter is further exacerbated by the fact that no one is there in the department to apologise for such a serious mistake or at least admit the fault. I am at a loss of words to express my feelings for such negligent officers in the passport and immigration department.

They should have taken greater care and caution when it comes to the name of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Even the common sense demands that.

MUHAMMAD KASHIF Peshawar

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Irfan

Sep 11, 2012 09:24am

Sorry but it seems like your fault. They give you a paper with all details written to check. You probably didn't bother about it. I don't get the point of bringing religiion into all this. So that was a bit low shot to go with. You are becoming a lawyer . stop being so irresponsible.

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Hamza Ahmed

Sep 11, 2012 11:42am

I recently got my passport from Lahore office. I remember going through atleast 7-8 different counters if not more. Despite extra havoc created by the passport agents and the remaining by US "the people", the passport office staff made me read all my details on a big lcd tv while they typed it on their system. And after all typing at each counter, they did ask me twice atleast to check all my details that they entered before they could lock them in. So in your case, did you check your details or something went wrong after the final submission that you checked? On a side note: I request people to kindly visit the information desk and apply for passport on their own without help of agents. The information desk is very cooperative and tells you in detail. It is always not good to blame the authority for mismanagement as people themselves are in too hurry or or too rich to pay to agents and bypass long ques of people standing under hot torching sun. If you want to change Pakistan, change yourself first.

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Muhammad Ali

Sep 11, 2012 03:58am

Passport authorities in Pakistan are a total disaster. My siblings and I, all have different sir names on the passport some have our father names, some have our middle names and some even have their first name as their family name. I don't know why they don't understand the implication of their mistakes. Secondly the passport issue process is terribly corrupt, they didn't allow my mother who was 59 year and some months in a senior citizen queue, I respected the rules, but then a 16 years old was coming with some xyz guy and pushed through the senior citizen queue. I was furious and when I complained, I was threatened by the director there that I will suffer by being kicked out of the place. My mom 59 got her process done in 7hrs and the 16 year did her in 15 mins.

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Anonymous

Sep 11, 2012 04:34am

You should have had your passport ready months ago. Why wait till the last moment? You know how things get done here

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Dua

Sep 11, 2012 05:32am

May Allah make it easy for you to complete all formalities and start your studies without any loss of time or money. May He in whose hands are the lives of all of us, forgive all your sins and make you among the best of men.

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hameed

Sep 11, 2012 05:40am

This reflects the conditions of govt. departments. this process should be in hands of third parties.

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ajk

Sep 11, 2012 09:05am

This happen everywhere. I was issued visa by Belgian embassy with a akram misspelled as akral.

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ajk

Sep 11, 2012 09:06am

yaar itna emotional kyoon ho rahe ho for such a small affair ... reserve Allah for something big in your lives ...

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nasir

Sep 11, 2012 09:27am

am sorry for your misery but dont they show you all the information before they click 'save' ? i got my passport from Peshawar too and they asked my if there was any spelling mistake or any other mistake before they save it....

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Sep 12, 2012 02:29am

very well said... and very true too.

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Shaan

Sep 11, 2012 07:17pm

They should have showed you all your information before saving it and if they did, then I would say thats solely your fault, don't blame them :).

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Gerry D'Cunha

Sep 11, 2012 07:34am

when you employ incompetent people in these department, these mistakes are bound to happen.

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BEA

Sep 11, 2012 09:24pm

well said.

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Mukesh

Sep 11, 2012 02:23pm

You first case after getting your law degree should be against the passport office. Please make sure to keep all the receipts of expenses and time that you had to spend due to this and then take them to courts when you become a lawyer.

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Gerry D'Cunha

Sep 11, 2012 02:40pm

muhammad ali I feel sorry for your mum, but you should know, two thing are common in pakistan to get your work done 'money'(rishwat) or 'honey'(jan pechan)

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Saadia

Sep 11, 2012 10:17am

Well NADRA is also not any better.

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Sawkar

Sep 11, 2012 02:15pm

This once again makes everyone to understand the education system is broken in Pakistan. Pakistan needs fixing this on emergency basis.

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Jay

Sep 11, 2012 06:25am

A similar mistake at Karachi office was fixed in 5 mintues for an honorraium of Rs. 15,000!

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Noorani

Sep 11, 2012 06:24am

Brother Muhammad you are not the first or the last person to have experienced such a blunder by passport officials. They do not care about any ones career or for that matter even some one's life. And what makes it worst is no one admits the mistake/error. This not only happens in Pakistan, here in USA the Department of State who handles immigration and passport affairs did similar mistake in my daughter in law's notice for residency card and in Toronto, Canada similar experience with my niece and no body said sorry or even admit the blunder.

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vijay, chennai, India

Sep 11, 2012 08:50am

Got the hint?

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tahir

Sep 11, 2012 07:56am

they ask you to sign the document on which all of your data has been entered by the passport office and after that they sent it for printing. if you signed on the document without going over the information then you are a part of this fault. if you signed the document having correct name and there is a mistake made by them after that (which is not possible, since the printing pick the same data on which you already signed) then its their fault. in this case they should have compensated you in terms of urgent passport without any fee.

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