British mission loses hundreds of passports in Pak

After several cases of lost passports surfaced last year,the British High Commission in Islamabad began an inquiry into the incident. However,investigations by the Federal Investigation Agency have not yielded any results....

After several cases of lost passports surfaced last year,the British High Commission in Islamabad began an inquiry into the incident. However,investigations by the Federal Investigation Agency have not yielded any results. The High Commission is still clueless about how so many passports could have gone missing.

We have concluded that 118 passports were lost and it happened in Islamabad as against the general impression that these passports went missing while being transferred to the regional hub in Abu Dhabi, a senior diplomat said. He,however,emphasised that the matter was being investigated. Pakistani investigators say the numbers could be much higher.

The issue has brought the two private companies jointly running the visa applications centre under intense scrutiny,particularly after heightened fears that the lost travel documents may end up in the countrys notorious passport black market to which the terrorists also have easy access.

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It is scary to think of such a large number of passports,many of them having valid visas of other countries,falling into the wrong hands. The BHC may need to review its entire system for the security of the documents submitted to it by visa applicants to prevent such occurrences, a senior Pakistani security official said.

The serious implications of passport loss were highlighted by a number of terrorist incidents and more recently by investigation into the assassination of Hamas leader Mabhouh al-Mahmoud in Dubai.

A spokesman for the High Commission,Rob Murphy,maintained that the department took the issue very seriously and investigations were already under way. We take the integrity of our immigration system very seriously and are investigating these reports as a matter of urgency, he said.

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