Mustafa Jamal Qazi, the Director-General of Passports in Pakistan, recently shared significant updates about the country’s shift towards e-passports. On his trip to the Karachi Passport Office, Qazi revealed that from 2027, e-passports will become the standard.
He noted that the transition from the existing machine-readable passports to e-passports is nearly complete.
In addition, Qazi announced the introduction of a new passport system, which is expected to be operational in the next six to seven months. He mentioned that this year, about 6.5 million passports were issued to Pakistanis planning to travel overseas.
Addressing the issue of Pakistani passports allegedly issued to Afghan nationals, Qazi stated that a specialized task force is investigating these claims.
He assured that passport issuance delays would be resolved soon, thanks to the government securing enough lamination paper needed for new passports.