It has directed the regional offices not to reject any application based on the address mentioned on the National Identity Card.
Citizens can now apply for passport anywhere in Pakistan: Here’s how. The federal government of Pakistan has amended the passport rules to enable citizens to apply for a passport in any city of Pakistan instead of just their hometown.
The development will come as a relief to applicants, who had to return to their hometowns to apply for passports as earlier government offices only entertained applicants from their locality.
The Directorate of Immigration and Passports has sent a letter to all regional offices in this regard stating that citizens are allowed to apply for travel documents in any city under the new rules.
An official statement said the citizens passports applications will not be refused if their residential address on CNIC is different from the area they are applying for the travel document.
Earlier in August, addressing prolonged delays in the issuance of passports leading to increasing complaints, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the National Assembly that the issue would be resolved by the end of September after the installation of new machinery and software.
In response to a Calling Attention Notice regarding delays in issuing passports, the federal minister expressed optimism that the introduction of the new system would also help clear the existing backlog of passport applications.
He said that the new system will be installed soon which will increase the daily capacity for issuing passports from 26,000 to 60,000.
