Dubai: Long delays in the renewal of passports and huge queues at the Pakistani Consulate General in Dubai have left applicants fuming.
A large number of applicants waiting in queues inside and outside the consulate building in the sun complained that they had to spend hours in the heat to get their applications processed.
"There is complete chaos which needs to be fixed. This is my third visit to the consulate in the last two months to collect my passport but it is not yet ready even after three months," said S.J., an applicant who did not want to reveal his name for fear of a further delay in the delivery of his passport.
"There should be proper seating arrangements as it is inhuman to make people wait in the sun and treat them rudely at the entrance gate."
There are only a couple of dozen seats available for the hundreds of visitors.
Another applicant said he was told to apply for an "urgent passport" as there was a huge backlog for those who were applying for a "normal passport" renewal. It costs almost double to get an "urgent passport". The fee for the urgent passport is Dh295 while it is only Dh155 for a normal passport.
Technical problem
An official at the consulate told Gulf News the excessive delays in the delivery of passports started early this year and now there is a backlog of more than 6,000 passports which are yet to be delivered to applicants in Dubai and the northern emirates.
"Some people have been waiting for their passports for more than three months," he acknowledged. He said the delay was due to a technical problem in the passport printing machines in Islamabad.
"We only collect data from the applicants and then send it online to Islamabad. The passports are printed in Islamabad and then dispatched to the respective consulates abroad," he said.
A normal passport delivery should not take more than two weeks while the urgent passport should be delivered within a week.
According to the official, an average of 800 to 900 applicants visit the consulate every working day to get various services including passport renewals, national identity cards, attestation of documents and affidavits in addition to welfare and visa services. This includes some 500 to 600 people who apply for passport renewals every day.
The excessive delay in the delivery of passports has also led to a plethora of problems for applicants. Many applicants' visas have expired, while others have had to revise their travel plans and flight schedules.
"This is ridiculous! If the passport office in Islamabad is having technical difficulties, then the government needs to fix the problem at once. This is a serious matter because people have to travel for different reasons and the government is doing nothing" said Khalil Ahmad.
"There is also no place for women to sit while children are crying due to crowding in the sitting area," he said. All family members have to come in person to apply for the renewal of their passports because it is mandatory to fulfil the requirements to get machine-readable passports.
"There are too many people in here and it is embarrassing for women as there is no priority or separate seating for them," said one woman, who had to wait for about three hours to get her application processed.
Junaid Shah, another infuriated applicant said they were not given any information over the phone while even application forms were not available at counters.
"Even the forms which were earlier provided free of cost, were not available at the counter. Applicants are referred to an in-house typing centre, which was recently set up. The typing centre charges an extra fee for providing and typing application forms," he added.
- 6000 passports yet to be delivered to applicants in Dubai and Northern Emirates
- 600 people apply for passport renewal every day
Evening shift
The Pakistan Consulate General is working on plans to start an evening shift to deal with the huge rush of applicants, said Consul General Amjad Ali Sher.
He told Gulf News in a recent interview he would soon launch an evening shift and an online appointment system for applicants. He said the plan to build a new three-storey building inside the existing consulate premises had been finalised but was still awaiting approval from their government.
