E-passport to be issued in June, says Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Thursday launched a new passport renewal service providing an opportunity to overseas Pakistanis to apply for passports online.

Addressing a press conference here at the Nadra Headquarters, the minister said in the first phase the online passport service would be for the overseas Pakistanis and after six months, it would also be available in Pakistan. He said in a year or two, the service would be expanded across Pakistan.

He appreciated the work done by the Passport Office and Nadra for introducing the online service and taking other measures like complaint resolution service, mega centres, SMS service and home delivery to facilitate citizens applying for passports and identity cards.

Nisar said he continued to receive complaints of extortion and rush at the Nadra offices and further steps would be taken to provide more facilities to the people.The minister said he had talked to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and got his approval for finances to start the e-passport project. In the initial phase, which would start from June 2017 at a cost of Rs600 to 700 million, e-passports would be issued to officials and diplomats and within two years, the e-passports would be issued across Pakistan.

Nisar said he wanted that passports should be issued for a period of 10 years to reduce“This step would minimise misuse of Pakistani passport, which would get more recognition in the world.  He said the government set up 72 more passport offices, adding that the government planned to establish passport office in every district.  The minister said services at the Nadra offices would be improved so that people could easily get identity cards.