Citizens can now apply for passports from any city

ISLAMABAD: The citizens of Pakistan will now be able to get their passports made from any city across the country regardless of their residential address mentioned in computerized national identity card (CNIC) as per the new rules approved by the department.

The development comes after the federal government made an amendment to the passport rules, allowing citizens to get their passports from any city in the country. A notification of the amendment in passport rules has been sent to the passport regional offices, according to officials.

Director General (DG) of Immigration and Passports Mustafa Jamal Qazi said the new decision by the federal government was made in the light of difficulties faced by people. An official statement said the passport applications will not be refused if the residential address on CNIC is different from the area people are applying for the travel document.

Earlier in August, addressing prolonged delays in issuance of passports leading to increasing complaints, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the National Assembly that the issue would be resolved by the end of September after the installation of new machinery and software.

In response to a Calling Attention Notice on delays in issuing passports, the federal minister expressed optimism that the introduction of the new system would also help clear the existing backlog of passport applications. He said the new system will be installed soon, which will increase the daily capacity for issuing passports from 26,000 to 60,000.