Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Due to intervention of the Federal Ombudsman, salaries of Passport office employees working in the 15 Pakistan Missions abroad have been released.
In his monthly report under Complaint Mechanism System, the Counselor of Pakistan Embassy Riyadh reported that due to delay in release of funds by IMPASS (Immigration & Passport), salaries could not be paid to the staff of that Organization, therefore, requested to help in the matter.
Syed Tahir Shahbaz, Federal Ombudsman referred the matter for investigation to Grievance Commissioner for Overseas Pakistanis Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmed Khokhar who took the matter with the D.G. Immigration and Passport. The DG Immigration & Passport informed that Machine Readable Passport/Visa system is operational at 49 Pakistan Foreign Missions including Parep Riyadh. Due to short fall of funds of Rs.5.395 million by the Finance Division, salaries were not released to the staff posted at different Pakistani Missions.
The Ombudsman office asked the D.G (I&P) and Finance Division to resolve the matter so that the payment of salaries could be made to the employees of IMPASS posted in different foreign missions. Consequently, Ministry of Interior remitted the funds to 15 Pakistani Missions i.e. Abdu Dhabi, Bradford, Chicago, Doha, Jeddah, London, Milan, Montreal, Muscat, New York, Ottawa, Paris, Pretoria, Riyadh and Singapore for payment of salaries of Immigration and Passport office staff posted in these foreign missions.
