RAHIM YAR KHAN, Oct 18: State Minister for Interior Affairs Zafar Iqbal Warraich inaugurated the passport office here on Thursday.

The new passport office will start functioning from Friday (today).

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said the latest digital system worth Rs15 million had been installed at the new passport office.

He said the people in entire the district had not to travel to as far as Bahawalpur for getting their passports and now they would avail this facility in Rahim Yar Khan.

The state minister said the office had been established in a rented building temporarily while District Nazim Rafiq Haider Leghari had promised to provide soon a piece of state land for the passport office.

Immigration and Passport director-general Brig Khalid Habib (retired) said the new passport would be issued in 12 days while the urgent one in six days.

He clarified that there was no need of any agent or reference for getting the new machine-readable passports.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusroo Bakhtiar, advisor to UAE government Chaudhry Muhammad Munir, immigration and passport director Ahmed Jamil Chaudhry were also present.