No Pakistani Computerized Passports for Hyderabad
I went to the "Awami Markaz" to get my computerized passport made so that I may be eligible to apply for a US student visa. I was told by a friend to go early as possible as the queues get pretty long as the day starts. I reached "Awami Markaz" at 8am, just to know there were already around 100 or so people gathered outside (awami markaz opens at 9am).
As the gates opened, there was a little fight at the enterance, followed by a lathi charge by the private guards.. Tadaaaa that marked the Official opening of the 100th Passport games 2005! The stampede progressed from the gates of Awami Markaz till the Passport office on the first floor and towards the National Bank on the 2nd floor. It was a pity to see families and females go through the same rush.
One would get pulled by plenty of agents every few minutes offering help (getting the entire process done) for Rs.1000/passport (in addition to Rs.2100 the passport fees). In case you decided to be brave and go through the entire process yourself, you still had to buy the empty chalan forms from these agents who had some sort of a deal with the National Bank for making the empty challans un-available at the bank.
Having, passed all the difficult stages of getting the challan form, paying the fees and standing in long queues of 200-300 people I finally reached the token counter at 11:30am. Only to know that the computerized passports are for the citizens of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad only! I have a Hyderabad address on my NIC and was was asked to get it changed to Karachi to have the passport made.
I called the Hyderabad passport office and NADRA, both told me the same story.
"No Computerized Passports for Hyderabad"
This means any one in the entire Sindh province wanting to have a computerized passport has to shift to Karachi and get a Karachi address on his/her ID card?
Not to forget the US consulate now only accepts "Computerized Passports..."
Does NADRA/Pak Govt. or the Immigration office have an explanation to this?
As the gates opened, there was a little fight at the enterance, followed by a lathi charge by the private guards.. Tadaaaa that marked the Official opening of the 100th Passport games 2005! The stampede progressed from the gates of Awami Markaz till the Passport office on the first floor and towards the National Bank on the 2nd floor. It was a pity to see families and females go through the same rush.
One would get pulled by plenty of agents every few minutes offering help (getting the entire process done) for Rs.1000/passport (in addition to Rs.2100 the passport fees). In case you decided to be brave and go through the entire process yourself, you still had to buy the empty chalan forms from these agents who had some sort of a deal with the National Bank for making the empty challans un-available at the bank.
Having, passed all the difficult stages of getting the challan form, paying the fees and standing in long queues of 200-300 people I finally reached the token counter at 11:30am. Only to know that the computerized passports are for the citizens of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad only! I have a Hyderabad address on my NIC and was was asked to get it changed to Karachi to have the passport made.
I called the Hyderabad passport office and NADRA, both told me the same story.
"No Computerized Passports for Hyderabad"
This means any one in the entire Sindh province wanting to have a computerized passport has to shift to Karachi and get a Karachi address on his/her ID card?
Not to forget the US consulate now only accepts "Computerized Passports..."
Does NADRA/Pak Govt. or the Immigration office have an explanation to this?
posted by yasirmemon at 3/25/2005 04:45:00 PM
6 Comments:
Interesting...
Been there done that - I went thru the fiasco back in Jan - that time it wasnt so bad - I negotiated with the agent to 700 where he did the following, copy my old passport 3 pages, copy my id cards, fill the form, make the payment at NBP and get a token for me. All that for 700 but thought it would be better then hunting around and finally going home at 2 pm with nothing done.
I was lucky to have choosen the urgent line which was much shorter and i think more decent, though the entrance to that urgent office is on the outside of Awami Markaz. I got done in 2 hr flat (30 min delayed as i missed my token number that came up on one of the 15 displays, the applicant is responsible to keep track of the number imagine a tough task for the illterate, and if by chance you miss it- you start from zero again, crappy me, the only illterate in the crowd who missed his number got pushed back 30min for that mistake)
Its a nightmare and my feelings are with you Yasir. HYD heck its just a way to irritate you and probably make money in the process.
With all these problems, I would still live and die as a Pakistani.....
check out this
article
Pakistan turned to RFID before the US... The new computerized passports being issued in Pakistan contain a RFID chip similar to the one US intends to have on it's passports.
But the question is, is our privacy maintained? Anyone with a handy RFID reader may come up to you and ask you, Hey "Yasir", I have been instructed by your father such and such to take you home... Every detail on your passport can be read from a far away distance... Now thats a big WOW!?
read the details of our Pakistani Computerized passports here
yasir memon, as much as i am an advocate of privacy, and proponent of having nadra assure the common citizen of keeping it so, i disagree with ur post.
RFID are simple radio frequency chips that emit a number (technically a radio distortion). Anyway, the only way to get the data from a RFID chip is to have a connection to a system where the number can be referenced to certain data - which in the passports case would mean access to nadras database. So a simple RFID reader will not be sufficient to get access to private information.
However, if a smart chip was embedded, that is sufficient to hold actual data in itself ...but then it cannot emit the data remotely....
So at this point, if nadra can ensure that their database is closed from being accessed by unauthorized people, then our info is secure. This ofcourse is a tall order ..... i can only pray that nadra doesnt screw up as the guardians of our national information
And on another note, a computerized passport will probably do little with stoping others from looking at us with suspicion at international airports. After all a passport with a religion column is a joke, and only helps to support the claim that minorities are discriminated against in pakistan.
but what about here in the United States. my father's passport expired 2 months ago and he got the same old one after 2 weeks. so that means if u want a computerized passport you'd have to travell to pakistan to get it.. why don't they issue computerized passports over here in the pakistani embassy in D.C.. it really doesn't make sense. i mean its okai.. i can travell to pakistan for a few months to get the computerized green.. but howcome they issued the same old non computerized passport to my father from pak embassy in D.C..i don't get this crap
I got the same old non-computerized passport from the embassy in Stockholm. Does anyone know if this old piece of shit is accepted anywhere in the world?
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