Pakistan Consul General Shehryar Akbar Khan, Deputy Consul General Asif Hussain Memon and Commercial Counselor Abdul Wahab Soomro with local journalists.

Pakistan Consul General Shehryar Akbar Khan, Deputy Consul General Asif Hussain Memon and Commercial Counselor Abdul Wahab Soomro met with local journalists to discuss community issues on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, the consul general acknowledged the enormous contribution made by the Jeddah-based Pakistan Journalists Forum in developing ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and promoting soft image of Pakistan.

He said in his opinion the media is the strongest tool of 21st century being used in almost all fields.

“The Jeddah Consulate is the largest Pakistani mission abroad. It has a very experienced team and seasoned officers ready to help and serve community members living in the western region or those who come from other regions,” he said.

He requested media to spread awareness among community members on using UPS passport delivery service to collect Machine Readable Passport (MRP).

“Every day more than 1,000 passports are processed, not only are the people who need to apply for passports come to the consulate but also people who need to collect their passport visit the consulate, making the place very congested, and if people use the delivery service for only SR30, it will help reduce crowding in the consulate,” he said.

He assured the service is fully automated so people can use it without hesitation, and despite the limited resources of the consulate, all efforts have been made to provide best services to the community.

To bring improvement in appointment system for the renewal of MRP, he said they are planning to hire new staff to take appointments by telephone as many Pakistani nationals do not know how to use the Internet.

He also emphasized that the community should pay attention and renew their MR Passports in time as non-machine readable passports are now obsolete, however in any cases, a 6-month non-machine readable passports are given.

Khan assured improvement in consular services and said more facilities in premises will be built. Discussions are also ongoing between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to upgrade the MRP services in the Kingdom.

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