Nisar orders start of SMS service for tracking passports
- September 17, 2013, 9:26 pm
- National News
- 142 Views
ISLAMABAD, Sept 17 (APP): Minister for Interior and Narcotics
Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday directed the Director General Immigration and Passports to start an SMS service for tracking of passports in a week and home delivery service in six major cities of the country.
Chaudhry Nisar issued the directive at a meeting during his visit
to the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports Islamabad, said a press release.
Director General Immigration and Passports Sikandar Sultan
Raja briefed the minister about the organizational setup and the functions
of the directorate.
He also highlighted the key achievements and accomplishments of the
organization.
The minister said that officers of the department should always start
with the surmise that the "public is always right" and the staff needed to
perform to their utmost and always remember three key principles in their
service; there would be no tolerance for corruption, they should always work
in accordance with the law and that their service is towards the
state of Pakistan.
Chaudhry Nisar also underlined the importance of public dealing in
improving the image of the department.
The DG informed the minister that the directorate had completed the
process of replacing manual passport with machine readable passport system.
He also briefed about the special arrangements that have been made
for the passport issuance to the Hujjaj. The directorate has successfully
cleared the entire backlog regarding the printing of passport and issuance of citizenship certificates, he added.
The minister decided that passports would be issued for ten years
rather than five years and also directed to cancel all official passports issued against the rules and the regulations within next three days.
He directed that the construction of new offices and renovation of
old buildings be completed at the earliest to improve the customer
service.
A new help-line complemented by a facilitation desk be set up at
Islamabad office to address complaints of the public regarding passports, the minister said.
He directed to make policy guidelines for setting up of new passport
offices. He noticed the shortage of passport offices in Sindh and ordered to
produce a report on setting up new offices within the province to facilitate the public.
Chaudhry Nisar asked the directorate to reconsider the fines imposed
on lost passports and rationalize the charges.
He instructed the directorate to draft a clear cut policy on citizenship certificates and to modernize the visa extension process and to expedite the process of setting up state-of-the-art call centers to automatically cater to the queries of the citizens.
The minister also asked for a priority list regarding the setting up of foreign machine readable passport offices and visa issuance facilities at
foreign destinations, so that the deadline of November 2015 set by ICAO can
be met in time.
Chaudhry Nisar ordered that the staff not to cave in to any undue
pressure and ordered an enquiry into politically influenced decisions taken in the past.
He also asked the directorate to improve its functions and streamline
the process to completely eliminate corruption and assist the citizens of the country.
The DG briefed the minister about certain issues that are faced by the
directorate and requested for immediate attention by the Ministry of Interior.
The minister assured his full support in addressing the issues faced by the department and said that he wants to make it a model directorate of the government, and would do his level best to facilitate the upcoming
improvements in it.
