JEDDAH, 21 July 2005 — Pakistan’s Ambassador Abdul Aziz Mirza urged the Jeddah Consulate General officials to work with dedication and help overseas Pakistanis in getting their Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) without any hassle.
The ambassador was inspecting the newly installed system for the issuance of MRPs at the consulate general on Tuesday. He also gave instructions to ensure swift issuance of the National Identity Cards for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP).
The ambassador instructed that women staff be employed to deal with ladies in the photo section, because many women may not like to be photographed by men.
Mirza said he realized that making separate passports for children mandatory would be an additional financial burden on Pakistanis and told newsmen that recommendations would be made to the government to provide relief to the people by reviewing the fee structure and extending the validity of passports to 10 years.
MRPs are being issued from Saturday, July 23, and applicants would be required to bring old passports with them.
The passport issuing authorities claim they would be able to issue 300 to 400 passports per day.
Ambassador Mirza was briefed by Consul Shaukat Kayani and Nawaz Malik, who is here to supervise the introduction of MRP.
Mirza also visited the section where NICOPs are issued and listened to the problems of the people who had gathered there to get their cards.
Although the staff was working diligently, the people gathered there had to stay in queue for long. People had come to the consulate since 7:30 a.m. and some of them had visited the consulate several times earlier.
The ambassador ordered that tokens be issued to all those who come for appointments.
Welfare Consul Dr. Shoaib Akbar briefed the ambassador on the issuance of NICOPs.