Consul-general says the government has approved the plan to build a two-storey consular hall with a floor ground capacity of 400 people
Hassan Afzal Khan. — Supplied photo
The Consulate-General of Pakistan, Dubai, on Thursday announced expansion work of its consular hall to accommodate three times more people.
While speaking at a press conference, Consul-General Hassan Afzal Khan said the design is in the process of approval and the expansion work will begin very soon.
Costing more than Dh2 million, the expansion work will complete by October-end.
Currently, the hall can accommodate up to 120 people who come for consular services such as passport and ID card renewals and issuances from Dubai and Northern Emirates.
“The government has approved the plan to build a two-storey consular hall with a floor ground capacity of 400 people while around 50-plus would be accommodated on the first floor. This will increase capacity by more than three times and provide relief to Pakistani nationals,” said Khan.
The consulate provides services to around 1,000 people every day for passport, Nadra and document attestation.
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The Pakistani mission in Dubai currently provides one-window operations to its nationals, becoming the first mission to provide this service.
There are approximately 1.7 million Pakistani citizens living and working in the UAE, mainly in Dubai and Northern Emirates.
The outgoing consul-general elaborated that this expansion will also help reduce queues of people who come very early.
Khan assured that temporary arrangements would be made to ensure the continuity of the consular services to visitors during the construction phase.
“Upon completion, the consulate will be able to host big events such as Independence Day and Pakistan Day on a bigger scale with participation of more community members,” he added.
-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com
Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.