If you have ever stood in a long line at a passport office in Pakistan, you know how tiring it can be. The good news is that things are finally about to change. The government has decided to fix the old system and bring it into the modern age.
Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has given a clear task to the newly appointed Director General of Passport and Immigration, Muhammad Ali Randhawa. The job is simple but huge: turn the entire passport and immigration process into a fully digital and paperless operation. No more stacks of forms, no more lost files, no more running between counters just because someone misplaced a document.
Naqvi made it very clear that making life easier for the public is the number one goal. He wants faster service, less waiting, and a system that actually works for ordinary people. That means if you apply for a passport, the process should be smooth, transparent, and quick. The new DG has his work cut out, but early signs suggest he is serious about getting things done.
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There is another change that people will notice right away. Passport offices will now stay open five days a week. This might sound normal, but just a little while ago, things were different. Under an austerity plan from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, offices were only open four days a week. Half of the staff was also working from home because of rising tensions in the Middle East and efforts to save energy.
That decision did not sit well with many citizens. People needed passports for jobs, travel, and emergencies, but they could not get them easily. So the government listened. They reversed the four-day rule and brought back the full five-day schedule. Now all passport offices across the country will work from Monday to Friday like before.
The goal is simple: make sure no citizen has to struggle just to get a travel document. With digitisation on the way and office hours back to normal, there is finally some hope that getting a passport in Pakistan will no longer be a nightmare. Let us see how fast these changes actually happen on the ground. But for now, it feels like a step in the right direction.
