Staff Shortage as Barrier to Passport Distribution and Ministry Operations, says Foreign Minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs, NP Saud, has said passport distribution and other activities of the ministry have been affected due to lack of human resources.

In a meeting of International Relations Committee and Tourism Committee held on Wednesday, Minister Saud mentioned that service delivery of foreign ministry is being affected due to less number of quotas of employees in Ministry’s structures within the country and abroad.

“There are only 283 human personnel in Ministry’s structure within the country and abroad. We have introduced modern technology but have not been able to provide services in a systematic manner for lack of technical human resource”, he shared.

During a meeting on “Discussion with foreign ministry regarding its activities along with passport management’, he shared that complaints have increased due to failure to explain to the people about time and process required to make a passport.

Stating that there was lack of time to purchase passport through G2G method, Minister Saud mentioned that preparation was underway to purchase through ‘variation’.

Of the 66-page 400,000 passports, only 5,000 passports were distributed in two years, he added, clarifying that only Rs 5,000 has been determined for the 66-page passport as there is less attraction towards it.