Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in a recent statement on X said “To give ease to the public and to facilitate, at least one passport office will be open 24/7 in both Lahore and Karachi”, highlighting the aim to enhance accessibility to passport services round the clock, underscoring the government’s commitment to ease the process.
This week, the interior minister took decisive action by suspending passport officials amidst rising concerns of corruption and bribery in passport offices.
During a visit to the Lahore Passport Office in Garden Town, Mohsin Naqvi encountered a distressing scene with citizens expressing frustration over long queues, widespread bribery, the influence of mafia intermediaries, and a backlog of complaints.
Last month, a shortage of lamination paper forced the Department of Passports and Immigration to reduce its daily passport output drastically, prioritizing urgent and e-passport requests.
Reports reveal that over 7,000 prospective Umrah pilgrims from various cities were unable to perform their pilgrimage during Ramazan due to delays in passport processing.
Despite the department’s capacity to produce 25,000 passports per day, the daily influx of applications exceeded 40,000, straining resources and causing delays.
In March, sources noted a typical daily applicant count of 4,000 in Karachi’s passport offices, which decreased to 1,800 to 2,000 during Ramazan.
