Mustafa Jamal Qazi, Director General of Immigration and Passports, informed a Senate panel that the number of pending passport applications has significantly increased.
In a statement to the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, Mustafa Jamal Qazi revealed that, although there is no backlog for passports issued to overseas applicants, approximately 16.5 million applications are pending in the ‘normal’ category.
However, this figure appears unusually high compared to the 0.8 million backlog reported in May, leading some observers to suspect that the number in the official statement might be a typo.
On Thursday, Qazi reported to the committee that the Passport and Immigration Department generated Rs. 45 billion in revenue last year.
Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman, the committee chairman, asked Qazi to provide details on official and diplomatic passports at the next meeting. Furthermore, Nadra Chairman retired Lt. General Munir Afsar gave an update on the Authority’s operations and performance.
The committee expressed concerns over the issuance of fake CNICs to Afghan nationals. In response, the Nadra chairman revealed that 629 employees were dismissed for their involvement in this issue, and the authority had blocked 3.8 million attempts to illegally acquire CNICs. The committee praised Nadra for its efforts to combat the problem.