T HE passport delivery process in Pal(istan causes considerable inconvenience to the applicants,including unnecessary expenditure of time and resources. As thingsstand,once apassporthas been processed and printed, the applicants are required to collect it in person from the relevant office. This means that the passport must first be transported bacl( from the printing facility to the office concerned, and for the applicant to collect it. The process involves travelling, spending on fuel and transport, contributing to traffic congestion, and, in many cases, waiting in queues merely to receive a document that is already ready for collection.

The burden of inconvenience is especially significant for senior citizens. For someone over 65, having to make a journey simply to stand at a collection window, sometimes for up to an hour, seems an unnecessary use of both the applicant`s time and public resources. A straightforward alternative would be to offer secure courier delivery of passports directly from the printing facility to the applicant`s registered address. The applicant could opt for this service at the time of application and pay the full cost of delivery.

Foreign embassies in Pakistan routinely offer passport and document delivery through courier services, demonstrating that secure delivery of sensitive documents can be managed effectively. Delivery could be made strictly to the applicant against dueidentiñcation and according to clearly defined courier instructions, with no delivery to an unauthorised person.

Applicants who prefer personal collection could, of course, retain that option.

Amjad Mohammad Lahore