New consul general in New York comes up with initiatives to facilitate expats
Says resolving issues of Pakistanis would be his priority.
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s new consul general in New York Aamir Ahmad Attozai, soon after assuming office, vowed to resolve issues facing by the expat Pakistanis.
He said a police electronic service center would soon start functioning to receive or attest documents of overseas Pakistanis or to register an online FIR against anyone in Pakistan.
Speaking at his first meet-the-press program, the diplomat said like people belonging to different countries living in America, the diaspora of Pakistan in New York also have a number of issues which needef to be highlighted and resolved.
The consul general said resolving the issues of Pakistanis would be his priority.
Speaking about the initiatives he plans to resolve the issues of Pakistanis, he said the electronic police facilitation center would start functioning soon to help the expats in getting character certificates and in the issuance and renewal of different documents without waiting for long.
He added that in the past to get a character certificate the homeland security department used to write to the interior ministry of Pakistan which forwarded the case to the police station concerned.
The whole process took about six months to complete, but with the launch of the electronic police facilitation center the process would be completed within days.
The consul general said the expatriates could also get an FIR registered in Pakistan from the USA after launch of the new faculty.
He said initially the facility would be available in Punjab but would be expanded to whole Pakistan later.
He said there have been a number of cases in which properties of Pakistanis living abroad, including houses and plots, were occupied back home.
To facilitate the expats in registering FIRs against the culprits in such cases without visiting Pakistan, a hotline was being introduced through which the chief secretaries of all the provinces and regions and the chief commissioner of Islamabad would be in touch and initiate action against the culprits.
In response to a question from News Diplomacy regarding the procedure to submit online applications for different documents, head of chancellery Adil Nawab said any Pakistan can visit the consulate, get a photograph taken and summit their biodata/details.
After this, the consulate will forward the applications to Pakistan and the required documents for which the Pakistanis used to wait for months would be made available within eight to 10 days.
On the occasion, the diplomats stressed the role of media in highlighting the issues of the diaspora in order to get them resolved.
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