Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhary told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested more than 100 agents in operations over the past month.
Responding to points of order raised by lawmakers, he said the government had adopted a customer-focused approach to improve passport services.
He said passport security features had also been improved. The government was working with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to provide passport services at all its centres, he added.
“This will help reduce queues at passport offices and make the process easier for citizens,” he said. He said criminal cases had also been registered against officials found facilitating passport agents. He said action would be taken against any official or passport office found treating citizens improperly.
The minister invited lawmakers to provide details of specific cases or identify passport offices where citizens were facing problems. He said the passport system had been reformed and online application and appointment facilities had been introduced to facilitate applicants.
Responding to allegations that passports of people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being deliberately delayed or withheld, he rejected the claim. He said he was ready to examine every case and provide details about the reasons for any delay. The Minister assured the House that action would be taken against any official found discriminating against citizens on the basis of their province or region.
He said the government was committed to further improving passport services and making the process easier for applicants.
The minister also said the government was working to remove illegal and fraudulent identities from national records.
Responding to complaints about the suspension of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) in Balochistan, he said no CNIC was suspended or blocked merely because of a person’s provincial identity.
He said Nadra had identified cases in which Afghan nationals and other foreigners had obtained Pakistani identity documents through fraudulent family trees and other means. Some officials involved in manipulating records were facing criminal cases, while others had been dismissed, he added.
Giving an example, he said 55,000 Pakistani passports held by Afghan citizens had been surrendered in Saudi Arabia alone. He said foreign nationals possessing Pakistani documents could create serious problems if they became involved in terrorism or other crimes abroad. In such cases, they were treated as Pakistani citizens, he added.
He urged elected representatives to take specific cases to the Interior Committee if they believed their complaints were not being addressed. He said action would be taken against any passport official found involved in wrongdoing or providing preferential treatment to agents.
