Pakistan to install biometric machines at airports to check fake passports

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to introduce biometric machines at airports to check the use of fake passports, weeks after 10 Afghans were caught travelling on fake Pakistani passports at a London airport.

The Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA) agency decided to introduce new passport-reading technology at the Benazir Bhutto International (BBI) Airport here, the Dawn reported.

Director FIA Immigration Inam Ghani told the paper that the technology, which will include biometric machines, will be integrated with the FIA's passport and immigration database to enable its immigration staff to detect "the most sophisticated fake passports."

That would improve the working of the FIA staff at the passport control desk at the BBI airport.

The biometric system verifies the identity of a person on the basis of his or her finger prints.

Ten Afghan nationals were caught travelling on fake Pakistani passports at a London airport last month.

FIA Immigration's Deputy Director Mohibullah Mandukhel and Assistant Director Matiullah, who were manning the desk when the Afghan nationals took a PIA flight to London, were transferred after the scandal unfolded.

Three other FIA staff members were suspended and are being investigated on suspicion of collaborating in the fraud.

The issues of fake passports had long overshadowed Pakistan's reputation.