DOHA: The Pakistan Embassy has announced a series of measures to address delays in issuance and renewal of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) to Pakistani expatriates, the Pakistani ambassador to Qatar Shahzad Ahmad said yesterday.
The embassy is all set to launch a token system to organise the long queues of passport applicants at its premises. The embassy auditorium would be used as a waiting area for visitors seeking passport services.
To make it easier for payment of fees for various consular services, the mission has held discussions with Doha Bank asking them to open more counters inside the facility, provide payment services in its branches in the city and facilitate online payment, said the ambassador.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation has asked all member countries to replace manual/ hand-written passports with MRPs. An original deadline of November 2015 has been extended to November this year to comply with the rule.
“With a growing population of Pakistanis in Qatar, demand for the services of MRP has increased from around 80 applications to some 500 requests a day. We are doing our best to cope with the rush. We have already placed a request to our government to provide more staff, especially for services related to MRP”, the ambassador told The Peninsula on the sidelines of an open house held at the embassy yesterday.
He said the embassy has tripled its capacity for issuance and renewal of MRPs within its means.
“We have increased working hours of staff by four hours until 5pm. We are processing 150 applications for MRPs daily,” he said. The embassy has already issued around 90,000 MRPs. With growing demand for consular services, the sole counter of Doha Bank through which fees are paid is also overworked.
“We had top level discussions with the Doha Bank and we hope they would be facilitating payment at different branches, as well as online and mobile payment,” said the ambassador. He said to address long queues, the embassy will initially introduce a manual token system until it gets an automatic one.
Although there is a delay in appointments for MRPs, the embassy is processing emergency cases on a priority basis. To avail of the emergency services, applicants will have to approach the embassy and present their cases to officials.
“They can approach me directly through an online appointment. I personally handle eight to ten cases daily,” he said.
During the open house, the ambassador patiently stood for two hours at a stretch, facing angry Pakistanis airing their frustration over the allegedly poor services of the embassy. Many participants also raised job-related issues such as transfer of sponsorship, salaries and perks. The ambassador assured them he would take appropriate steps to solve their problems.
The Peninsula
