Pak manual passports valid until 2015

A Pakistani senator has said that a large number of Pakistanis who have not yet obtained machine-readable passports (MRPs) will be able to travel on manual passports until 2015.
Sen. Sehar Kamran, who is also a member of the Senate's committee on foreign affairs, said that earlier the deadline to obtain MRPs was July 2012. Saudi Arabia has already extended the deadline for obtaining the MRPs until 2015, she added. Pakistani missions in the Kingdom have also issued a circular in this regard.
Kamran, who raised this issue in Pakistan's Senate, said: "Hundreds of Pakistanis were facing hardship and even deportation due to this problem, as the missions in the Kingdom were not able to provide them with MRPs on time due to heavy workload and lack of infrastructural facilities."
She said the capacity of the missions is to provide up to 300 passports every day, while they receive around 1,000 applications in a day. Secondly, for getting MRPs, the applicants need to have a Computerized National Identification Card (CNIC). And for those working in far-flung areas it is difficult to complete all such formalities quickly.
"So, I raised the issue in the last session of the Senate, and Interior Minister Rahman Malik immediately issued necessary instructions to our missions in the Kingdom in this regards," she said, and added: “Furthermore, the government has assured the missions additional MRP units within a month.”
Kamran lauded the untiring efforts of Ambassador Muhammad Naem Khan for pursuing this issue effectively through his channels.
The newly elected member of Pakistan's upper house, who is also a member of the Senate’s committee on overseas Pakistanis, Kamran also raised other expat-related pressing issues in the house, including of those detained in Saudi jails.
Replying to her question, the Senate was informed that as many as 1,676 Pakistanis, including 25 women, are in detention in some 23 prisons in the Kingdom.
In her written reply to Kamran's question, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar informed the house that five of the prisoners had been in jail for over 15 years, while 168 for more than five years. She, however, did not share the details of prisoners who are in jails without being sentenced by competent courts, informing the housing that the Pakistani mission in Saudi Arabia had requested the Saudi authorities to provide details about such prisoners but reply from Saudi authorities is awaited.
Minister for Textile Industry Makhdoom Shahabudin on behalf of the foreign minister informed the house that most of the 25 women in jail were detained on the charge of overstaying in Saudi Arabia.
Some 485 Pakistani prisoners including five women prisoners are imprisoned in Bariman Jail Jeddah, 276 including 16 women imprisoned in Makkah jails, 342 in Al-Malaz Jail in Riyadh, 206 in Al-Hair Jail in Riyadh and 108 in General Jail Madinah.
Kamran has suggested opening legal aid desks at the missions to help such detainees. "It has been noticed that many people languish in jails due to lack of proper legal aid. Our mission staff is overstretched and unable to provide legal assistance in all parts of the Kingdom. So the idea of a full-fledged legal desk for this purpose has been mooted and modalities for its creation are being worked out," she said.
Kamran also said that the Pakistani government is considering signing a treaty with Riyadh to have convicted prisoners transferred to complete their sentences in their home country. It will ease mental and financial pressure on the relatives of the convicts.