by Tariq Naqash in Dawn, Sept 27
MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 26: The regional passport office in the AJK capital has been out of operation for almost two weeks, to the utter frustration of passport seekers from three AJK districts, but neither they nor the local officials know as to when this hitch would be removed, it was learnt here on Wednesday.
According to visitors and insiders, a glitch in the server had rendered the passport office, which caters to the residents of Muzaffarabad, Hattian Bala and Neelum districts, non-functional since September 14, but the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports had not sent any team to remove the problem despite written reminders.
“They are taking this issue very lightly notwithstanding its adverse effects on the expatriates earning foreign remittances and also on students. Otherwise the problem would have been resolved within three days of its occurrence,” said Arif Hussain, an exasperated passport seeker outside the passport office which he had been visiting for the past several days.
A notice affixed at the entrance of the passport office, set up in an improper rented building along the dusty Muzaffarabad-Abbottabad road, stated that “Due to a technical fault in the system, applications can not be entertained. The applicants should make a phone call to the office during office hours before another visit.”
Assistant Director M Sadir Khan was away from his office but a junior official told Dawn that the problem had occurred in some gadgets of their system which needed to be replaced.
Upon further inquiry, the official disclosed that from September 14 to September 25, they had thrice written to the Project Director, Machine Readable Passport (MRP) in the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports Islamabad and the Director (headquarters), but to no avail.
“There is no doubt that people are suffering a lot and blaming us for their plight but we are helpless,” he said.
Shopkeepers in the immediate vicinity of passport office told this correspondent that they had seen many people, particularly students, literally crying as they desperately needed fresh or renewed passports.
“We heard many saying that they would lose their jobs or admissions if they did not get their passports in time,” they recalled.
Sources said it was not the first time the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports had shown indifference towards the plight of the passport seekers in Muzaffarabad.On March 28 this year, the main server of the office had crashed, rendering the office dysfunctional, and it had taken 15 days for the Directorate General in Islamabad to send a technical team to remove the problem.
Inside the cramped building, people have to wait for hours during power outages as there is no alternate arrangement of uninterrupted power supply.
The official, who spoke to Dawn, claimed that they did have a generator but were unable to install it due to the opposition of the building owner.
“Yes indeed it’s an unsuitable building in an unsuitable location where one has to spend at least Rs 250 to reach after depositing the passport fee in the relevant bank branch,” he said.
The notice board also revealed that after July 25, 2012, delivery of normal passports were “late from Islamabad” and therefore the applicants should check for their arrival after sixty days.
Theoretically, delivery time for a normal passport is 12 days and for an urgent passport is 6 days, but practically they are being delivered after 30 days and 10 days respectively.http://dawn.com/2012/09/27/ajk-passport-office-dysfunctional/
Be First to Comment