Machine Readable Passport Project
ISSUE
When Federal Interior Ministry of Pakistan decided in principle that Pakistan’s passport would be a Machine Readable Passport developed by NADRA in 2004, some vested interest started planting negative stories about NADRA’s systems and the national database. The result was a very negative press which was badly hampering NADRA’s image in the media and publics.
ROLE OF THE PASSAGE
To rescue NADRA from getting hammered by the bad press, The Passage planned to counter the negative campaign by giving briefings to media men about the project, clarification of misconceptions, etc specially engaging the press from smaller cities. Our aggressive approach in this campaign remained well-defined; we kept on highlighting the importance and benefits of MRP to the country and NADRA’s strength and capability in such projects.
OUTCOME
With continuous feeding of stories on developments and not holding back any info from the journalists, we succeeded in not only rebuilding, but also enhancing NADRA’s credibility and reputation in the media which eventually enabled NADRA to win the project. Government ultimately had to implement it without any further delay.
