How has using Machine Readable Passports (MRP) helped Pakistanis traveling abroad?
AZS: There have been questions on the authenticity of the travel do*****ents that you carry. Somehow in developing countries this facility was misused; every Tom, Dick and Harry would have the passport especially in Pakistan. Two years back a merchant ship loaded with almost 1600 people reached Australias dock. The Pakistani embassy was informed that all people were carrying Pakistani passports. When investigated it was revealed that these were all Afghanis who, through bribery, got the passports made by the passport office in Pakistan. So our passport had lost the credibility to zero. After 9/11, UN and international body decided to have standardized travel do*****ent to be followed by all countries. Around 40 countries were having these Machine Readable Passports (MRP) for the last 20 years but they were not following the international standards. Exploiting this opportunity NADRA took the initiative and developed the MRP system which is the first of its kind in the world, in terms of
