Passport issues in KSA

Sir: Non-resident Pakistanis (NRPs) are ambassadors of the country in foreign lands and they are a dependable source of strength for the national economy by contributing more than $ 12 billion through foreign exchange remittances in these days of acute financial crunch. Nonetheless, I wish to draw the attention of the interior and foreign ministries to the plight of about two million NRPs working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), where the local embassy has announced that Pakistani Manual Passports will cease to be valid after July 31, 2012. However, no special arrangements have been made for replacement of the old passports, already issued to thousands of Pakistani community members in the kingdom with validity up to 2015.

There are only two centres in the whole of the kingdom where Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) are being prepared, in Jeddah and Riyadh (in the western and central provinces), whereas there is no such facility available in the Eastern Province having about half of the total Pakistani community in the kingdom. Pakistanis living in Khobar, Dammam, Jubail, Khafjee, Qatif, Al-Ahsa, Qassim areas have to travel 500-600 kilometers to go to the capital Riyadh and stand in long queues beginning early morning without any sunshade and proper waiting lounge. This is very cumbersome and painful particularly when you are told that today’s quota is finished and you try your luck tomorrow. I personally had to visit Riyadh twice with my family from Jubail on rented transport worth SAR 1,000 (Rs 24,000) per trip with two days off from office to process the new passports.
This current situation is very disappointing and disgraceful for the overseas Pakistanis in addition to being too costly. The Pakistani embassy is the only embassy in Riyadh out of the 100 plus foreign missions where people are standing in long queues right from 5:00 am (naturally after travelling for the whole night from other regions). The unpleasant situation calls for urgent remedial measures by the interior ministry.
The Government of Pakistan is requested to take the following steps immediately to alleviate the sufferings of the people: two more MRP units should be established in KSA, one in Khobar (eastern province) and second one in Madina Munawwara (western province).
All the passport-issuing offices in the kingdom must be directed to work for six days a week until at least December 2012 so that people could get the old passports replaced with MRPs. The time limit for validity of manual passports should be extended to December 31, 2012.
TAHIR MAHMOOD NADEEM
Jubail,
KSA