The Federal Ombudsman Mr. Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi taking cognizance of complaints against delay in issuance of passports to general public & lack of facilities in the Immigration and Passport Office Rawalpindi, constituted a team of senior officers comprising Mr. Muhammad Safdar D.G.(Admn)WMS (former DG Immigration & Passport), Mr. Pervez Haleem Rajput, Consultant (Implementation) and Mr. M. Javed Chaudhary, Director Media to investigate the issues at Passport Office and submit report.
The Inspection Team has submitted its preliminary report after listening to the complaints of general public and observed serious mis-management in handling the general public who visited for the issuance of their passports. The team also observed lack of adequate seating facilities due to which people were forced to wait in long queues and also observed non-availability of fans and lack of drinking water facilities in the sitting area.
During inspection the system of passport office broke down due to damage caused to the fiber optic in some area of Rawalpindi. On the immediate direction of inspection team, people were facilitated for issuance of their passports from Passport office, Islamabad.
The Inspection Team was informed that every day 500-600 persons visit for issuance of their Passports. The team observed that the waiting time for the applicant was 3-4 hours which was too long.
The team also noticed that one senior citizen, Syed Zakir Hussain visited 14 times from Wah Cantt: for the issuance of his passport but to no avail.
