Open corruption in passport offices

Pakistan and corruption can never be separated from each other. Believe me, no political administration can clean the nation from the vices of fraud and deceit, as these things have immersed with our blood and medically, whole blood needs to be changed if
it gets affected with some fatal virus. It will be mistaken to assume that corruption will go with the transformation of the administration. It cannot go unless we, as a nation, want it to go.

Though every public institute in Pakistan is awash with sleaze, but I happened to experience personally one important organisation yesterday.

On December 29, I had to visit a passport office in Lahore in order to apply for my mother’s passport. I along with my old mother reached there approximately at 8am. I was stunned to see huge crowd of people wandering there. The first thing I encountered
with and which made me feel scarred was the non-availability of information. I looked into the whole building but there was not reception, no information cell and no other roadmap there. Like me, nobody knew where he had to go, how to get his work done and
who was the person concerned whom he could meet.

I was moving to and fro in the same confusion when an agent approached and offered me to get my work done if I greased his palms. Being an honest Pakistani and, unfortunately, an educated youngster, I turned down his offer point blank.

After searching and inquiring continuously for at least an hour, I came to know that the first step of passport application was to submit fee in National Bank of Pakistan, and the fee was to be paid via a Challan Form which was not available anywhere. At
last, I went to a nearby photocopy shop and purchased that form, which is entitled to be available for free, in one hundred rupee. I filled the form and joined the long queue for submission which took two hours.

The second step was to get a token which seemed to be a herculean task as the office authorities were not issuing tokens without a ‘crucial’ requirement. You will be surprised to know what the requirement was. It was a little stamp required to be placed
on the Challan Form.

Believe me, the stamp was totally unauthorised and useless. More interesting but bitter is the fact that the stamp was not available on any of the public counters. Like me, most of the candidates were worried where to get the stamp from. After wasting two
more hours, I came to know that the stamp was available only with the agents and there was no other way to get it. Moreover, those agents used to give a fair share of plundered money to the directors and assistant directors of the passport office. Oh bad!

Finally, I went to the same agent, who met me in the start, and asked him for stamp. He demanded Rs. 1000 bribery for that favour. As I had adjudged the situation that there was no other option to apply for the passport, I was forced to pay the demanded
amount from my fair earnings. At that juncture, my conscientious scolded me a lot, and all me claims of honesty, fair-play and justice were razed to ground.

The post-stamp process is indescribable as I think that I do not have words to explain how much I and my mother suffered over there till late night and saw other people suffering.

This is a minor example of corruption that is rife everywhere in the state. Deplorable is the fact that all this is going unnoticed and unchecked. We are addicted to it. We are forced to do it. No other but we and only we can change it. Every individual,
like me, must raise his/her voice against this oppression. Let us come up and crush these savages who are sucking our blood. Unless we speak for our rights and struggle to snatch them, no one will concede them to us. It is not rebellion at all, rather it is
a battle for living a peaceful and fair life.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=7814

Posted by Sharjeel Ahmad on Dec 30 2011. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry