Officials for the passport department say issuing and distribution of passports to those that have filled online forms are in top priorities of the passport department.
Speaking to journalists and participants in the accountability program to the nation, officials for the passport department said the department has completed issuing and distribution of passports to nearly 150,000 people who had filled the online forms for passports in previous government.
In the meantime, the passport department has issued and distributed passports to thousands of people in recent months.
“Since I was appointed as head of the passport department, nearly 35,000 – 40,000 online forms have been processed and completed, but later the issuing process of passports have been suspended due to increasing demands for passports and crowd of people,” said Alhaj Mawlavi Abdul Hakim Hamdi, head of the passport department.
He said that the issuing process of passports for real residents of Kabul was resumed, adding that at first 300 online forms were processed and later it reached to 500 forms.
Based on information of the passport department, nearly 714,337 electronic passports for which online and offline forms have been processed and people received their passports. The department says with the cooperation of the ministries of interior and foreign affairs the contract for printing 3 million passports has been finalized and will soon be handed over to the IEA authorities.
Speaking about processing passports to patients and pilgrims, civil deputy of the passport department Shir Shah Quraishi said necessary facilities have been provided for security personnel and other organs as well as pilgrims and patients.
Pointing to counter corruption within the passport department, officials of the department said that since the resumption of issuing and distribution of the passports, at least 350 individuals involved somehow in corruption have been arrested.
In connection with future plans, officials for the passport department said changing current passports to electronic passport holding chip, expansion of online forms for passports across the country, connecting passport branches in provinces to the passport department and others are a range of plans that will be implemented in future.
Although the passport department is working to provide facilities for those requesting passport, people are complaining that the process to get passport is very slow. Officials of the passport department say the process of issuing and distribution of passports to those requesting will get better in future.
Kohistani
Passport distribution top priority, official
