KARACHI: Senior Advisor and In charge Federal Ombudsman Regional Office Karachi Syed Anwaar Hyder directed Immigration and Passport department to enhance staff strength and increase bank counters to further facilitate citizens in acquiring passport.

During visit of main Immigration and Passport office Saddar Karachi along with associate adviser FOS Karachi Riaz Ahmed Memon, he stressed on befitting measures to fast track the process of issuance of passport particularly printing and lamination of basic travel document.

He said that visit of regional passport office was carried out on directives of Wafaqi Mohtasib Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi and complete inspection of functional areas and facilities was conducted besides taking briefing from officials and interaction with applicants present in premises.

Talking to media, he informed that number of applicants complained that they were not receiving their passports on given dates and they have to pay several visits to office for receiving their passport.

Citizens intending to go abroad especially students and workers were facing difficulties because of delay in issuance of passport that has mainly being caused due to issues of availability of lamination paper, he said and added that Ombudsman Secretariat will recommend government to find out permanent solution to issue to ensure issuance of passport on time and saving citizens from hardship.

Immigration and Passport department South Zone were issuing more hen 500,000 passports annually from Karachi and in average 2,500 to 3,000 citizens visit main office at Saddar on daily basis.

Staff and office space was deficient to deal with such large number of applicants, he observed and asked officials to deploy more staff and enhance number of bank counters to cater large number of applicants in swift manner.

He opined that Immigration and Passport Department should be developed in line with corporate sector standards like NADRA as it would help further improving its services.

Director Immigration and Passport South Zone Saeed Ahmed briefed district offices for Central, South, West and Keamari districts and special counter for government servants, senior citizens and persons with different abilities were housed at main Saddar centre, district East office was functioning at Awami Markaz while Malir Kala Board office process applications from Malir and Korangi districts.

There was an executive centre in Clifton area that extends services to citizens from all areas of Karachi while special counter has been set up at Sindh High Court to facilitate lawyers fraternity, he informed and added that proposal for establishing district office in Korangi was also under consideration.

He informed that stringent measures were taken to discourage involvement of agents and brokers and several FIRs had also been registered in regard.

I&P Saddar Office also issues Hajj passport to large number of pilgrims and it would remain opened on Saturday as well to facilitate Hujjaj-e-Karam in receiving their passports.

He lauded proactive role of Federal Ombudsman in resolving public complaints and stated that intervention by Wafaqi Mohtasib helped improving services of department.

Earlier, Federal Ombudsman Secretariat’s team visited different district offices and counters to inspect facilities being offered to applicants besides interacted with applicants present. Senior adviser also listened to complaints and issued at spot directives to resolve them.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 24 2024

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.