SRINAGAR: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar seeking his intervention in the renewal of her passport and said that she and her mother had applied for passport renewal in 2020 that has been dragged needlessly for three years.
In a letter to EAM Jaishankar, she said that her application has been pending as the Jammu and Kashmir CID gave an adverse response that issuing a passport to her and her grandmother would undermine national security.
“In J&K, it has become the norm to arbitrarily reject passport applications of thousands including journalists, students and others by misusing national interest as a pretext. We moved J&K High Court and, after the case dragged on for three years, the Hon’ble Court gave clear directions that the Regional Passport Office in Srinagar shouldn’t operate as CID’s mouthpiece by denying passports on vague grounds”, the letter read.
She said that she was asked to approach the Passport Authority of India, which she has done multiple times since 2021, and has not yet received a positive response yet.
“In my case, I was asked to approach the Passport Authority of India, which I have done multiple times since 2021. Unfortunately, I have not received a positive response yet. The inordinate and deliberate delay in issuing my passport is a grave violation of my fundamental right. If suspending my basic rights in a democracy like ours is done with such brazen impunity and contempt, one can’t even imagine what an ordinary Kashmiri goes through”, the letter read.
She said that she has been waiting to take her mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca, but has not been able to. She further alleged that her daughter’s passport renewal application has also been pending.
“My daughter Iltija applied for her passport renewal in June 2022. Her application is in limbo and it seems that the Passport Office in Srinagar is yet again failing to discharge its duty. For the past three years, I have been waiting eagerly to take my mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca. As a daughter, I feel pained and anguished to be unable to fulfill such a simple wish because of petty politics. I write to you hoping that you will look into the matter urgently”, she wrote. (ANI)