KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Wednesday about the `theft of thousands of passports` from passport offices across the country, Dawn.com reported.

In a meeting of a subcommittee of the PAC, chaired by Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Passports Director General Mustafa Qazi revealedthatthousandsofpassportshad been stolen from 25 offices across the country `in different years`.`All passports in these cases were blocked,` Qazi added. `They have not been reviewed, nor will they be.

Audit authorities said in the meeting that 32,600 passports were stolen from passport offices in Abbottabad and elsewhere. `This is a very worrying matter, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said. `These stolen passports could be misused.

The DG said, `The Ministry of Interior arrested the foreigners who illegallywent to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan.

Riyadh has deported Afghan citizens from there.` He said that after the incident, the passport system would be completely digitised, and auditing authorities noted that a cyber-audit of Nadra was conducted two years ago.

`Now it has become very difficult to produce fake documents,` DG Qazi said.

The subcommittee directed the DG to submit an inquiry report.-Dawn Report