News
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Haj pilgrims asked to obtain travel documents in advance
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs has requested all those intending to perform haj this year to obtain computerised national identity cards (CNIC), national identity card for overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) and international machine-readable passport in advance of the announcement of the Haj Policy 2010.
In a press statement issued on Wednesday, it said that these should be valid, having at least one-year validity at the date of the filing of the haj application.
Meeting held: A meeting was held in this regard on Wednesday with the representatives of the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports and the National Database And Registration Authority (NADRA). They agreed to make arrangements on an urgent basis.
Passport offices will be established and special counters at designated branches of their offices will also display banners for the facilitation of the pilgrims. NADRA will also start its service of mobile units in far-flung areas.
Meanwhile, NADRA and passport offices have been requested to work overtime to facilitate pilgrims.
The press release said in case urgent service was required from NADRA for the issuance of CNICs, it would charge Rs200 and delivery would be made after two weeks.
In case of Fast Track Service for the issuance of CNICs, NADRA would charge Rs1,000 and delivery would be made after one week. International Machine-Readable Passports would be issued after 12-14 days on a normal fee of Rs2,100 while they could be issued within 5-7 days on payment of an urgent fee of Rs 4,000.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk