Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi chaired a high-level inter-ministerial meeting yesterday, approving a joint strategy between the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence to replace fragmented multi-agency airport screening with a single integrated clearance point using biometric e-gates and smart document scanners.
The approved framework consolidates what has been a series of separate checking counters operated by different government agencies into one unified processing point. The biometric e-gates combine facial recognition and fingerprint scanning to reduce per-passenger immigration clearance time from the current three to five minutes down to under 45 seconds. The system is designed to integrate in real time with the Federal Investigation Agency’s exit control list, passenger name records, and Interpol databases for risk identification. Islamabad International Airport, Lahore Airport, and Karachi Airport are named as first-phase deployment sites.
The April 22 meeting reviewed installation progress and approved procurement of the latest scanning machinery. M2P Consulting, a foreign contractor that signed an agreement with the Pakistan Airports Authority in April 2025, is responsible for planning, design, and installation of the e-gate infrastructure. The dual-ministry structure of the initiative, spanning both Interior and Defence, is set against a broader national security framing than standard immigration modernization. The April 22 approval builds directly on Pakistan’s biometric e-gate project at three major airports, first reported in June 2025, when the Pakistan Airports Authority completed the design phase and engaged M2P Consulting for technical specifications and procurement.
By October 2025, Pakistan’s airport biometric e-gate rollout had advanced to confirmed integration requirements with the FIA’s immigration systems, setting the stage for the April 2026 joint ministerial strategy approval. The one-window clearance system fulfills a directive established by Pakistan’s 2024 airport biometric screening mandate, which directed the FIA to deploy facial recognition, fingerprint, and iris verification at major airports but left the multi-agency coordination problem unresolved until now.
Naqvi said that “unified checking on a single scanner by all institutions will save time and facilitate passengers” and added that it is the government’s “commitment to provide modern, fast and easy travel facilities to the public.” He rejected the notion that the security and passenger convenience goals are in conflict. No specific completion date for the one-window system was announced at the April 22 meeting; the rollout remains at the approval and active installation stage.
Sources: Dawn, Geo.tv, Arab News Pakistan
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
