Pak embassies to issue machine readable passports from January
By: Hanif Khalid
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistanis in Sydney, Canberra, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Damascus and New Delhi will start receiving Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) from next month. According to sources in Interior Ministry Machine Readable Passport system has been installed in the above-mentioned countries and it will become functional in the New Year.
The sources said that differences among some institutions of Pakistan was the reason of delay of this revolutionary step. A department of the government wanted to send its own officer and staff while the other institution wished to send its own staff on the attractive posts in foreign countries.
The sources in Interior Ministry said that the system of issuing Machine Readable Passport would be installed in the diplomatic missions of Pakistan in foreign countries. It was told that the issuing of Machine Readable Passport system was working in 23 countries of the world so far, while 17 were online.
It was also told that issuance of Machine Readable Passport systems were established in only 20 cities of Pakistan but this system had started functioning in 63 districts at the end of year 2011, while a plan has been chalked out to install this system in 40 more cities of Pakistan.
The fee for getting passport has also been increased from Rs2,100 to Rs3,000 for ordinary passport of 36 pages and from Rs4,000 to Rs5,000 for urgent passport of 36 pages from next Monday (January 1, 2012).
The fee for ordinary Machine Readable Passport of 72 pages has been increased from Rs4,500 to Rs5,500 while for urgent from Rs8,000 to Rs9,000. The fee for ordinary Machine Readable Passport of 100 pages has been raised from Rs5,000 to Rs6,000 while Rs12,000 would be charged for urgent Machine Readable Passport instead of Rs10,000 from January 1, 2012.
Source: THE NEWS
” 
” 
” 
” 
