SHANGLA: The applicants on Wednesday demanded of the directorate general of immigration and passports to take notice of closure of the passport office in Shangla district.

Passport applicants coming from various parts of the district told reporters in Alpuri that the regional passport office had been closed for last 10 days.

“I visited the passport office in Alpuri a week ago where the computer operator asked me to go to Swat for admission of the application. Then I went to Swat passport office, where the officials turned me away, saying that his document would be prepared in Shangla regional office,” Mohammad Iqbal, a resident of Pirabad, said.

He said he had twice visited the Swat office and four times to Alpuri office, but still was unable to get passport as he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia for employment.

Intikhab Alam, district councillor from Lelonai, said the passport office had been shifted to another place, that’s why, the computer operator was suggesting the applicants to go to either Swat or Battagram.

He demanded that the office should not be shifted to any other place.

Jibran Khan, another applicant, told Dawn that passport renewal in the Shangla district had become a hectic work for him as he had been visiting the regional office frequently for last many days but it had stopped operations.

He said he had to go to Dubai where he worked in a company as an engineer, and he just had a few days left in his vacations, but it seemed the company would fire him from the job if he could not get the passport renewed.

Provincial minister for information told Dawn on contact that he had met with director passports who assured him that a technical team would soon visit the regional office for installation of the system to make it functional.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019