ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has increased the fees for domiciles and international driving licences.

An official of the ICT administration said the fee for an international driving licence was Rs350 which has been increased to Rs1,000 and the fee for a domicile has also been increased to Rs1,000 when it was Rs200 before.

An ICT official said the fees was increased to help establish a facilitation centre for the public and claimed that many district administrations in Khyber Pal(htunkhwa and Punjab were consider-ing replicating the system installed in the federal capital. He said Gilgit has already allocated funds to replicate the Islamabad centre.

The interior minister, however, has taken notice of the increase in fee, and has sought a reply from the ICT administration in this regard and has asked when the increased fee was enforced. The ICT administration has been asked to reply in 24 hours.

A statement issued by the interior ministry says Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has asked how different fees can be charged across the country for the same facility and that the minister has called this unjustified and illogical. Mr Khan has been reported as saying that this was not acceptable and will not be allowed.

Talking to Dawn, an ICT administration official said obtaining a domicile or an internationaldrivinglicenceinIslamabad was very difficult a few years ago.

`People would have to visit many times over many months to get their domiciles and international driving licenses and [touts would operate in offices who wouldcharge] between Rs3,000 and Rs5,000 to help one get a domicile or licence,` he said.

The official said that the interior minister had taken notice of the situation three years ago and had directed that the process be streamlined.

`We decided to introduce an online system in 2015 for both facilities and established a state-of-the-art facilitation centre in G-11 at the cost of Rs8 million, he said.

`Now we have proper seating for people who visit the facilitation centre, the hall is air-conditioned and we have installed televisions as well. If someone applies for an international driving licence in the morning now, he can get it by afternoon.

Domiciles are also issued within a few days,` he said.

`Some employees were also hired to facilitate people and all expenses, including salaries, utility bills and equipment are paid from the income generated at the facilitation centre. All income is audited and there are no chances of corruption,` hesaid.

The official added that the facilitation centre in Islamabad was established because the interior minister wanted to facilitate residents of the federal capital and that if the ministry orders for the fees to be reduced, the office will have to revert to the manual system as it will not be possible to pay for the better services offered now. The other option, he said, was for the ministry to subsidise the facilitation centre.

When asked, Deputy Commissioner retired Captain Mushtaq Ahmed said the facilitation centre was established to facilitate people and that everyone should visit it before forming an opinion about it.

`The major benefit of the online system is that people will be issued just one domicile and driving licence. When the manual system was in place, people would be issued many licences and domiciles. We have introduced special features and numbers to ensure the licences are credible, he said.