Published on, Sept. 18 -- September 18, 2025 6:25 AM

Thirty-two thousand six hundred travel documents do not simply vanish; they can be stolen, traded, and weaponised. That this happened inside Pakistan's own passport offices, confirmed by Director General Mustafa Qazi before a Public Accounts Subcommittee, is yet another warning call, reaffirming the state's signature instrument of identity being turned into contraband, and sovereignty itself made a farce.

The scandal breaks at a time when Pakistan's passport is already among the weakest in the world. Even after Islamabad rolled out biometric e-passports with microchips, holograms, and ICAO-compliant safeguards, it ranks marginally above conflict-ridden Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. T...