- Tenders issued for purchase of printing machines, e-passport machines to do away with backlog
ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of the backlog in the issuance of passports, the federal government on Saturday issued tenders for the purchase of printing machines and e-passport machines to do away with the backlog.
According to official data, the printing of over 800,000 passports has been lying pending as the Passport and Immigration authorities are currently printing 20-25,000 passports against 40-45,000 applications being received daily. Sources expressed the hope that with the purchase of new machinery and lamination paper, this backlog is expected to be cleared soon.
The government in order to address the issue, has issued tenders for the purchase of printing machines and e-passport machines, while international tenders have also been issued for purchasing lamination paper.
It to be noted that the applicants have been facing unusual delay in the issuance of passports for the past two months.
According to sources, over 550,000 passport applicants are facing delay of up to two to three months in getting their passports.
Sources said that the Passport and Immigration Department failed to provide machine-readable and e-passports on time.
A massive number of Pakistanis planning to go for Hajj and Umrah are also faced with delays in passport issuance, sources added. In response, the passport authorities said that the delay occurred as they were out of stock of ink and lamination paper. However, after the arrival of both items all passports will be cleared by June, they claimed.
