Mehbooba writes to Jaishankar, seeks his intervention in issuing her passport

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday sought External Affairs Minister S Jaishankars intervention for her passport saying she has been waiting for it for the past three years to take her 80yearold mother on a pilgrimage to MeccaIn a letter to the minister she said her passports renewal has been pending as the Jammu and Kashmir CID gave an adverse report that issuing the travel document to her would undermine national securityMehbooba also highlighted the delay in issuing of passport to her daughter Iltija who wants to pursue higher studies outside the countryI am writing to you about a matter that has dragged on needlessly for the last three years the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said and added that my mother Gulshan Nazir and I applied for passport renewal in March 2020JampK CID gave an adverse report that issuing passports to my 80yearold mother and me would undermine national security In JampK it has become the norm to arbitrarily reject passport applications of thousands including journalists students and others by misusing national interest as a pretext Peoples Democratic Party PDP leader said in her letterAlso Read Nothing new in IT survey at BBC offices govt has adopted similar measures against journalists in Kashmir MehboobaShe said they moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and after the case dragged on for three years the court gave clear directions that the Regional Passport Office in Srinagar should not operate as the CIDs mouthpiece by denying passports on vague groundsIn 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 Mehbooba who is currently in Jammu saidShe said that if suspending my basic rights in a democracy like ours is done with such brazen impunity and contempt one cannot even imagine what an ordinary Kashmiri goes throughMy daughter Iltija applied for her passport renewal in June 2022 Her application too is in limbo and it seems that the Passport Office in Srinagar is yet again failing to discharge its duty the PDP leader saidFor the past three years I have been waiting eagerly to take my mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca she said and added that as a daughter I feel pained and anguished to be unable to fulfil such a simple wish because of petty politicsI write to you hoping that you will look into the matter urgently she said in her letter to the external affairs ministerLast week Iltija filed a petition in the high court for issuance of passport pleading that she needs the travel document immediately to pursue her higher education outside the countryThe 35yearold in the plea had said her passport expired on January 2 and she had applied for a fresh passport in advance on June 8 last yearIn March 2021 Mehbooba and her mother were refused passports after the Jammu and Kashmir Police cited an adverse reportMehboobas passport expired on May 31 2019 and she had applied for a fresh passport on December 11 in the next year while her mother wife of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had applied for a passport in 2020 to undertake the pilgrimage to Saudi ArabiaMehboobas passport application is still pending but authorities released the passport of her mother early this month after the high court passed fresh directions to the passport officerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever