By: Amjad Malik
The respect Pakistani rulers have created for the Green passport abroad is visible from the treatment they get at the USA airport when they had to take off their shoes and belts. However this same travel document is a passport to heaven to some 8 million Pakistanis who have families back home and their desire to keep in touch with their families and the country of origin is an unannounced “un conditional support’ towards Pakistan. However Pakistani bureaucracy and successive regimes have always preferred to give the basic rights of their citizens as favours which is a near curse to any nation. I will be unfortunately highlighting about a minor hardship towards obtaining new or renewed passports at missions abroad especially in UK which is causing havoc in Pakistani lower threshold circles i.e. students, spouses visa holders, work permit holders and all others who are temporarily resident in UK, of course, those have no “sifarish’ or goose’ to give and they are here in the system for years.
Asylum seekers from UK have the privilege to be directly promoted to the posts of chief Ministers, Governors, Ministers, Ambassadors and even advisors but common Pakistanis are still queuing up for their basic rights outside these missions. Recently Govt of Pakistan has introduced a policy or practice whereby no passport will be issued and or renewed on the basis of old identity card. One will have to have a new computerized identity card in order to enjoy that facility, I feel that may be justified in limited circumstances to collect data and to combat terrorism & illegal immigration, however it must be coupled with arrangements whereby such identity cards are issued within a time frame to access to facilities.
Now lately there has been a shift in the way passport is issued whereby upon expiry of any passport Pakistani citizens are demanded a “home office document’ or ‘sticker’ confirming that they require a passport for necessary visa endorsement. Pakistanis struggle and run around the missions to obtain passport and are in a catch22 position. Home office asks for an original passport as they do not entertain application(s) for further, Indefinite Leave to Remain unless supported with original unexpired passport, and Pakistani mission asks for home office letter requiring a passport. We feel when over estimated one million illegal immigrants in UK from all nationalities are stuck and wish to regularize their stay, our calls for amnesty are frustrated when citizens are denied their basic right to hold a travel document (passport) of their country of origin.
