Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supremo and former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar seeking assistance in the matter of her passport. Mehbooba on Monday (February 20) said she has been waiting for a passport for the past three years to take her 80-year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Mehbooba, in a letter to Jaishankar, has said that the renewal of her passport is pending, as the Jammu and Kashmir CID in its report has pointed out that issuing travel documents to her would not be in the interest of national security.
During this, Mehbooba also raised the issue of delay in issuing a passport to her daughter Iltija (35). Her daughter wants to go abroad for higher education. Mehbooba has written in the letter, 'I am writing to you regarding this subject, which is unnecessarily being dragged for the last three years.' Mehbooba said, 'My mother (Gulshan Nazir) and I applied for passport renewal in March 2020. The J&K CID had reported that issuing passports to my 80-year-old mother and I would pose a threat to national security. Mehbooba alleged that it has become a rule in Jammu and Kashmir that passport applications of thousands of people including journalists, students, and others are arbitrarily rejected on the pretext of national interest.'
She further said that she has also approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in this matter. After the case dragged on for three years, the Court sent a clear message to the Regional Passport Office, Srinagar, that they should not behave like a representative of the CID by refusing to issue passports on vague grounds. Mehbooba said, 'I was asked to contact the Passport Authority of India and I have contacted there several times since 2021. Unfortunately, so far I have not received any positive answer. Deliberate delay in issuing a passport is a serious violation of my fundamental rights.'
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