The vital role Pakistani expatriates are playing in easing the balance of payment situation for their homeland is quite obvious, but the difficulties the Pakistani consulates abroad, create for them are highly deplorable. A cousin of mine has been working in the United States for more than a decade and like thousands of other compatriots, is regularly sending back support money to his family in Pakistan. His passport expired and he had to visit the Los Angeles Pakistani Consulate for its renewal. The staff there asked him to submit his National Identity Card which unfortunately had also expired, due to his long absence from his country. The renewal of his passport was refused unless he produced a currently valid National ID card, for which he would have to lose his job and come back to Pakistan, and may not get another job again when he returned to the United States.According to the international conventions, a passport serves as a national identity card for a citizen of any country living abroad, but our consulate staffs are creating the same bureaucratic hurdles there that they use here in Pakistan. Instead of being helpful, they are misusing their authority there for God knows what purpose. This is very painful for our expatriates who are sacrificing the proximity of their loved ones to serve their country away from home.The Government of Pakistan is requested to order its embassies and consulates in the foreign countries, especially in the United States, to renew the passports of its citizens living there without the condition of producing National Identity Card or just to accept the expired card for this purpose.MAHMOOD AHMAD KHAN, Muzaffargarh, July 8.