Foreign ministry to issue passports to expatriates

LONDON: Pakistani government’s decision to transfer the sensitive task of issuance of passports to Pakistani expatriates from Ministry of Interior to Ministry of Foreign Affairs has caused security concerns and reservations are being expressed about the viability and need of some of the austerity measures.
The papers seen by The News show that the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) will operate only in 3-4 countries for the provision of National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) services in the world and the current level of services by Nadra in various countries will subsequently be withdrawn in the name of austerity measures. After the cuts have been made, the Nadra staff from London will be assigned the duty of conducting surgeries in the European countries for provision of NICOP services to thousands of Pakistanis who live in European countries and are helpful in generating revenue to the tune of millions of dollars every year for Pakistan’s economy.
Not only that these decisions, once implemented, are bound to create problems for Pakistanis in the UK and other European countries but already the proposals have created a rift between Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sources within the government, while speaking to The News, have expressed fears that the shifting of passport functions and withdrawal of Nadra services will result in failure by the government in meeting the deadline of November 2015 set by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as due to the shortage of time and lack of resources switching of manual passport system to Machine Readable Passport system will not happen on time.
Sources feared that this will bring bad name to Pakistan across the world and will create immeasurable problems for the Pakistani travellers, who will be denied boarding on the basis of possession of manual passport.
It has been observed in the United Kingdom that the Nadra sections established in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow are unable to cope with the growing demand of NICOP. The News is aware that Pakistan High Commission in London is giving an appointment of 4-5 months for NICOP application processing, which has created resentment among Pakistani community.
A diplomatic source said that the demand was so huge – and increasing – that it could be met by increasing the Nadra staff, rather than abolishing it.The source said that the current Nadra staff is unable to meet demand in the UK and it was absurd that it was being assigned the duty of conducting surgeries in all the European countries for provision of Nadra services. The source said that if the proposed measures are implemented just to meet targets then it will bring the Nadra system to halt in European countries and will badly affect the travelling overseas Pakistanis as well as those seeking other services which are based upon provision of NICOP or CNIC.
The shifting of passport services from Ministry of Interior to Ministry of Foreign Affairs will badly affect provision of Machine Readable Passport services at the missions abroad. “Machine Readable Passport system is an integrated system which works like an organic body. Handing over different parts of the system to different departments / ministries shall result in breach of integrity of the system/database and whole process of issuance of passports is likely to collapse. This decision is also against The Rules of Business 1973, which states that one government function cannot be divided between two departments,” said the source.
The existing Machine Readable Passport is highly sophisticated and advanced which is being run and supervised by highly skilled technical engineers at Immigration and Passports Department. “The proposal of shifting this technical system to non-technical Foreign Office staff at Missions abroad is not practicable and will end up exposing the system to abuse and ridicule,” said the source.
Machine Readable Passport System directly relates to national security as protection of sensitive database of passport holders and protection against the issuance of passports to unauthorised / non-entitled and non-desirable persons and non-nationals are most important aspects of the whole mechanism.
The problem of issuance of passports to unauthorised person becomes the most sensitive issue, in the context of foreign missions as more attempts and incidents of issuance of manual passports to non-nationals / non-entitled persons were reported at Foreign Missions, confided the source.
He said that being located at foreign soils theses passport issuing authorities are less or not as protected by security surveillance umbrella as inland passport issuing centres are. “Therefore most sensitivity needs to be shown towards systems installed at foreign missions. Sharing passport system/database and its codes between two departments will weaken the security system and will result in its breach, which is against the national interest,” said the source.
The News understands that the proposal of withdrawing passport staff from the foreign missions and posting of foreign office staff in their place is based on sole argument of austerity while in reality if implemented, it shall enhance the expenses as assignment of passport issuance is an exclusive job. “Pay and privileges of Foreign Office staff are much higher than that of passport officials and staff. It is evident that the Foreign Office will hire at least 400 to 500 new staff members to run the System which is not required and totally uncalled for,” said the source.