KARACHI: The federal government is aware that applicants have been extremely concerned about the delay in the granting of Pakistani passports.

There are reportedly more than 800,000 passports that need to be printed right now, but this backlog should soon be addressed since new equipment and lamination material have been purchased.

As of right now, the Passport and Immigration authorities are processing 40–45,000 applications every day, and they are printing 20–25,000 passports.

In order to solve the problem, international tenders have also been launched for the acquisition of lamination paper, in addition to printing and e-passport machine procurement.

It was reported on March 30 that applicants are experiencing atypical delays in the processing of their Pakistani passport applications.

Over 5,50,000 passport applicants are reportedly waiting two to three months for their passports to be issued.

According to sources, the Department of Passports and Immigration did not promptly supply e-passports and machine-readable passports.

According to sources, there have been significant delays in passport issue due to the large number of Pakistanis going to perform the Hajj and Umrah.

The passport authorities responded that the delay was caused by a shortage of ink and lamination paper, but that all passports will be cleared by June once these supplies arrive.