LAHORE – The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (DGIP), Islamabad has been issued 1,00,000 passport booklets and related material to overcome the consecutive delays in issuance of passports, sources in the Directorate confided to TheNation on Monday. They said Interior Minister Rehman Malik was supposed to address the mediamen before handing over the same to DGIP but due to his busy schedule he could not talk to journalists and material was handed over to DGIP. Sources said that another consignment of 2,00,000 booklet of passport would shortly be handed over to DGIP. An officer of passport office appointed at a regional office said they were facing problems due to delay in issuance of passports to the masses in time. He was of the view that from the time when Pakistan government changed the papers-wise strength of passport booklet and its validity, several people were visiting passport offices to get their passport reissued. “Tough we are charging double fees for lost passports but people were keen to get their passport reissued,” said an officer seeking anonymity. An officer deputed at Abbott Road Lahore office said they were only able to issue passport to the applicants who had submitted applications in September. Similarly, urgent passports were also being issued after two to three weeks. Sources disclosed that more than 700 applicants were visiting Garden Town office daily against the capacity of 550 and 500 others were visiting Abbot Road office which could entertain only 350 people daily. Among the applicants are students, people with job letters, businessmen, intended Ummrah pilgrims and others who are tired of repeated visits to the office to get their passports issued. Another officer said 15,000 booklets were required across the country on daily basis to meet the masses’ need but Security Printing Corporation of Pakistan was not fulfilling the requirement. Reason behind the crisis was non-payments by the DGIP to printing corporations.Sources disclosed that before issuance of consignment of 100,000 booklets Printing Corporation was issuing only 5,000 copies to DGIP not enough to meet the requirement of public seeking passport across the country.