The absence of a machine-readable passport facility at the recently inaugurated Pakistan Consulate General in Melbourne has disappointed many community members who still have to travel to Canberra to obtain new passports.
Although passports can be , applicants who require a new passport need to visit the Consulate General.
At the moment the Pakistan High Commission in Canberra and the Consulate General in Sydney provide these services.
However, the Consulate General in Melbourne which promised to ease customers' pain of commuting long distances is yet to make this facility available.
Some people have expressed disappointment over this.
Consulate General Pakistan in Melbourne Source: Facebook
"What is the point of opening the Consulate if they cannot provide this basic facility. I will still have to travel to utilise machine-readable passport service" said Aoon Raza an affected member
Jamshed Omer said, "We should give some time as the Consulate has just commenced operations, though it is disappointing to find out machine-readable passport service may take a while to be available."
We have already started working on this and I am hopeful the [Machine Readable Passport] service will commence very soon
According to a notification issued by Pakistan High Commission Canberra, the Melbourne Consulate General will provide services such as attestations, verifications, birth registrations, police clearance and visas.
It clearly stated that the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) service is not available.
Sardar Adnan Rashid, Consul General in Melbourne acknowledges the disappointment of the community and hopes the service will be available soon.
The Consulate General of Pakistan in Melbourne has officially commenced its operations Source: Facebook (High Commission for Pakistan, Canberra)
"It is hard to say when the service will be available as there are a lot of internal procedures involved which takes a fair amount of time," Mr Rashid told SBS Urdu.
"We need to get a few approvals from the departments of Foreign Affairs and Immigration in Pakistan which takes time."
Last year in August Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to Australia, Naela Chohan had of the Melbourne Consulate which would facilitate the Pakistani diaspora in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
But, the Melbourne Consulate General commenced its operations almost one year after the proposed date.
However, Mr Rashid emphasised that a lot of steps are involved in setting up a Consulate General which requires time and effort.
"A lot of administrative procedures were involved which included budgeting, the hiring of staff, procedural setup of services, travelling schedule and finding suitable office space within budget," said Mr Rashid
"We have worked very hard to organise this all and are pleased with the progress. I am hopeful the [Machine Readable Passport] service will commence very soon as well."
