ISLAMABAD: The federal government has approved a proposal to extend for two months a deadline for amnesty for government employees who have illegally obtained passports while concealing their job status.

The new cut-off date will be September 27. A communication to this effect, a copy of which is available with Dawn, has been sent to all passport-issuing authorities across the country.

Those who could not avail the amnesty that ended on July 23 have been asked to approach passport offices concerned, along with no objection certificates (NOCs) from their departments to get their passport data rectified and fresh passport issued. They will need to pay an additional processing fee.

The additional fee will fetch over Rs400 million if all of about 84,000 defaulting government servants avail the facility.

The government officials who obtained passports before joining the service and never used them till their validity need not worry. They can apply for a passport any time they intend to travel.

Those who have travelled after joining government service, without obtaining ex-Pakistan leave and NOC from their departments, will have to get their profession amended on payment of an additional fee of Rs5,000.

In case of employees of state-owned organisations, including autonomous and semi-autonomous corporations and companies, for whom government service is not printed on the passport booklet, an interface has been developed through which necessary update in the system can be made without issuance of a fresh passport. In this case, too, an additional processing fee of Rs5,000 is being charged.

On expiry of September 27 deadline, the defaulting officials will be liable to punishment under Section 6 of the Passport Act, 1974.

Section 6(1) of the Passport Act reads: “A person shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both, if he: (a) makes use of any statement which he knows or believes to be false in any document for obtaining passport; ... or (c) wilfully conceals any fact which under the circumstances he ought to disclose for the purpose of obtaining a passport …”

In March, a letter citing a cabinet decision had been issued by the passport department to the secretary of establishment division, giving details of the amnesty, for circulation among all ministries and divisions. Copies of the letter for similar action had also been sent to all the four provincial chief secretaries and the chief secretaries of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The amnesty period actually started in April. Earlier this year, the cabinet had decided to give a one-time amnesty to defaulting government officials, offering a scheme involving a penalty of Rs5,000 in addition of the routine passport fee to get their data rectified.

The issue was taken up in a cabinet meeting held on Feb 21. During the meeting, the interior division had said that the government should devise a policy to allow defaulting officials to get their profession amended and corrected in their passports under modification category by paying additional charges of Rs5,000 each. This would be in addition to the prescribed passport fee to compensate additional human resource and time required on the part of immigration and passports department.

Under a new policy, the interior division proposed to the cabinet that an advertisement should be given in newspapers asking government officials to approach passports offices with recommendations of their departments to get their data rectified within three months of the advertisement’s publication.

It further proposed that the government officials, who obtained passports before joining government service, should get their data corrected by producing NoCs from their departments.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2019