The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Wednesday about the theft of thousands of passports from passport offices throughout the country.
At a meeting of the Subcommittee IV of the PAC, chaired by Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, the general director of Passport Mustafa Qazi revealed that thousands of passports had been stolen from 25 passport offices throughout the country “in different years.”
“All passports in these cases were blocked,” said Qazi. “They have not been reviewed, nor will they be.”
The audit authorities said at the meeting that 32,600 passports of the passport offices in Abbottabad and other places were stolen.
“This is a very worrying issue,” said Chaudhry. “In the current circumstances, these stolen passports could be misused.”
The Passports DG said: “The Interior Ministry arrested foreigners who went illegally to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan. Riad has deported Afghan citizens from there.”
Qazi added that after the incident, the passport system will be completely digitized, and the audit authorities indicated that a cyber audition was carried out from the national database and the registration authority (NADRA) two years ago.
“Now it has become very difficult to produce false documents,” said DG Qazi.
The subcommittee instructed DG Qazi to present a consultation report.
