ISLAMABAD: The claim of Interior Ministry regarding completion of arrangements and provision of machine readable passport to overseas Pakistanis was proved fake.
According to creditable sources the arrangements for provision of machine readable passport to overseas Pakistanis haven’t finalise yet in embassies of over twenty countries and the future of Pakistanis residing there have become in stake. Sources said that there were over 25 such countries where there are not Pakistani diplomatic missions and the affairs of Pakistanis living there are being administrated through the embassies of neighbouring countries. Due to this situation, Pakistanis residing there are facing many hardships.
The authorities of Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistani few days earlier that in over 50 countries, arrangements for the provision of machine readable passport were not being made and after the deadline of September 30, the Pakistanis residing those countries will have no right to stay more and they have to come back to resign from their jobs.
“The countries where machine readable passport has not been provided to Pakistanis residing there may include Brazil, Dublin, Argentina, Abuga and Dackar and others”, they explained. The authorities of Ministry of Foreign Affairs further told the committee that it would be difficult to finalise the arrangements for the provision of machine readable passport to Pakistanis residing in those areas as first fifteen days of September be spent in Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
The authorities of Interior Ministry on this occasion said that accurate facts and figures have not been provided to us regarding the preparation of PC-1 for the provision of machine readable passport and the planning is being made again in this regard. It is worth-mentioning here that Marryam Aurangzeb, federal parliamentary secretary for Interior during question hours of NA session told the house that the conflict-hit countries like Afghanistan and Yemen, the arrangements for the provision of machine readable passport to Pakistanis have not been finalised while in remaining countries this task is being completed fastly.
The authorities of Foreign Affairs while proving her claim fake said that if arrangements in remaining countries for the provision of machine readable passport were not completed as Pakistanis living there would be expelled.
