The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has announced that the cash-based fee collection system at all passport offices will be discontinued from July 1, 2026, shifting entirely to digital payment methods.
The announcement was made during a briefing chaired by DG Immigration and Passports Muhammad Ali Randhawa with zonal heads, where officials were informed that passport fees will only be accepted through QR code-based digital payments after the deadline.
Officials said a dedicated passport mobile application will soon be introduced, enabling Pakistani citizens both at home and abroad to submit passport applications online. The system will also allow applicants to receive their passports at their doorstep, significantly simplifying the process.
According to authorities, the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports will transition to issuing only e-passports in the future. However, all existing machine-readable passports will remain valid until their expiry date and will continue to be fully acceptable.
The reforms are part of broader efforts to digitise public services and modernise the passport issuance system across the country. inpsocial media platform X.
He said that the sacrifices of Kashmiris who crossed over into Pakistan in October 1947 were recorded in history, etched in their memory forever.
“The struggle of Kashmiris in Indian-Occupied Kashmir against Indian occupation is a saga of martyrdom and lives spent in jails over the last 78 years. Pakistan’s commitment to the Kashmir cause is witnessed in the blood of our martyrs in five wars, and in our principled stand on a plebiscite and self determination as per UN resolutions,” he said.
He said that in this backdrop, the nefarious and external agenda driven voices coming out of AJK against Pakistan and the Kashmir cause must be responded to in the strongest possible terms.
“There are Kashmiris who paid the price for migration, and those who continue to pay the price in IIOJK. The people of AJK, who live here in peace and tranquility for many decades guarded by soldiers from all over Pakistan, and surely brave hearts from AJK too, need to recognize the sacrifices of Kashmiris of IIOJK and the Muhajirs of 1947 and later years. Belittling these sacrifices is negating the Kashmir cause,” Asif said.
“In my humble opinion, Kashmiriat is defined by the sacrifices and struggles waged over almost eight decades by Pakistanis including Kashmiris and all others, not by birth certificates,” the minister said.