THE decisions so far taken by Sheikh Rashid Ahmad after assuming the coveted office of Interior Minister convey a vivid impression that he was on the right course. After his widely-hailed decision of abolishing uncalled-for police pickets from different areas of the Capital, he announced on Thursday an extension of the passport validity from five years to 10 years without any additional fee to facilitate the country’s labour community working abroad, especially in the Middle Eastern countries.
Sheikh Rashid, who lives among the common men, understands day-to-day problems of the citizens and it has been his endeavour throughout his political career to help alleviate their sufferings. It was because of his keen interest that people of Rawalpindi face in getting college and university education because of his focused attention on opening educational institutions especially for women. Similarly, he has tried his level best to improve and upgrade infrastructure of the city and now again he is attaching priority to make his dream projects of Leh Expressway and Rawalpindi Ring Road a reality and completion of these two projects would surely go a long way in transforming the entire landscape of the city. People have heaved a sigh of relief over abolition of police posts which were contributing almost nothing to beef up security but were widely engaged in extortion of the motorists and travellers. He has also earned goodwill of Pakistani workers abroad by announcing extension of validity of the passport without any additional fee. Hopefully, he would also look into the possibility of a reduction in passport fee and also extraordinarily high fees charged by NADRA for its services, which is a strain on inflation-ridden people.
