Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has launched ‘FM portal’ for overseas Pakistanis living in 187 countries as a platform providing them quick solutions to their problems.
In his address at the launch of the initiative under Vision FO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad on Monday, he urged envoys to connect with the Pakistani diaspora in the countries of their assignment and address their problems promptly.
FM Qureshi said that all foreign missions of Pakistan are connected online and active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The portal has been launched in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision and the Foreign Minister’s ‘Digital Diplomacy Agenda’ and ‘Public Diplomacy Initiative’.
The mobile application has been developed by the National Information Technology Board with the help of the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit.
It will provide services in the standard procedure for document verification, the launch of QR code, and digital system to reduce the chances of counterfeiting and verification of documents through courier services within Pakistan.
It will also help in online verification of power of attorney for overseas Pakistanis through missions.
Under the initiative, the setting up of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) counters has been planned at 16 missions abroad for issuance of succession certificates and administrative letters to overseas Pakistanis.
The Foreign Office is also consulting with the police departments of Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan to digitise the issuance of police character certificates.
In addition, so far 14 missions have been given access to digital records of ‘mutation’ and ‘registration’ documents of the Punjab Land Record System.
Under the FM’s digital diplomacy agenda, the foreign minister had launched the “FM Direct App” last year.
Foreign Secretary Sohail Mehmood, Special Secretary Raza Bashir Tarar, and senior officials of MoFA and the Ministry of Information Technology attended the event.