ISLAMABAD: The Senate has unanimously passed a bill proposing lifetime retention of blue passports for former parliamentarians who have taken the oath as members of the National Assembly or Senate, regardless of whether they completed their terms.
Senator Abdul Qadir introduced the Passport Act Amendment Bill, which seeks to allow retired parliamentarians to retain and use their blue passports after leaving office. The bill also proposed extending the facility to the children of members of parliament.
During the debate, Senator Nasir Butt called for the cancellation of blue passports issued to retired officials, secretaries and judges.
In response, Senator Abdul Qadir questioned why the children of parliamentarians should be excluded from the facility when children of government officers in Grade 22 were also eligible for blue passports.
Minister of State for Interior Senator Talal Chaudhry said the government had opposed extending blue passports to the children of parliamentarians. He added that the government would introduce legislation to withdraw blue passports issued to the children of former secretaries.
Chaudhry warned that the growing number of blue and red passports was affecting the international standing of Pakistan’s ordinary green passport. He said efforts to secure visa-free entry for Pakistani citizens faced questions from other countries about the large number of blue passports issued in Pakistan.
He noted that when Pakistani officials cited around 75,000 blue passports, discussions on visa-free access became difficult to advance.
Federal Law Minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar also opposed extending blue passports to parliamentarians’ children. He said a blue passport was an official document rather than a symbol of personal prestige.
Tarar added that the government would also consider ending the blue-passport facility for the children of retired government officials, arguing that young people should build their careers independently rather than rely on such privileges.
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