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Three years after applying, Mehbooba Mufti gets her passport
With her passport had expiring in 2019, Mehbooba Mufti had applied for its renewal in 2020 after the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been provided a passport after three years. The same comes after a New Delhi-court had in March directed the authorities to arrive at a decision on her travel documents within three months.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief’s passport had expired in 2019 and she had applied for its renewal in 2020 after the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Mufti had said her 80-year-old mother’s passport had also been denied by authorities owing to an adverse report by Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The duo were planning to go for a religious pilgrimage to Mecca.
“My mother received her passport after three years. She had applied in 2020,” Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti said.
Mufti, 64, was issued a regular passport of 10-year duration as against her daughter Iltija’s restricted passport of two years and only valid for a single country — UAE.
Iltija said Mufti was issued the passport just before the deadline given by the Delhi court.
“A Delhi court had given three months’ time to the passport office here which were about to expire. They dispatched her passport before that,” she said.
Besides Mufti, her mother Gulshan Ara’s passport was also issued two months back. “My grandmother also received it and now my regular passport is pending,” she said.
In March, a court in Delhi asked passport authorities to decide on the issuance of travel documents to Mufti within three months. “Considering that the matter is remanded back to the passport officer and the initial rejection was two years ago, let the passport officer concerned take a decision expeditiously and in any case within three months,” justice Prathiba M Singh had said.
Earlier in February, Mufti sought the intervention of external affairs minister S Jaishankar over the delay in renewal of her passport along with her mother, saying that the matter has been “needlessly dragged” for the last three years. “Jammu and Kashmir CID gave an adverse report that issuing passports to my 80-year-old mother and me would undermine national security. In Jammu and Kashmir, it has become the norm to arbitrarily reject passport applications of thousands, including journalists, students and others by misusing national interest as a pretext,” Mufti had said.
She had decried that the passport application of her daughter Iltija Mufti was also in limbo.
However, Iltija was provided a “restricted” passport of two years duration in April this year and only for UAE.
Iltija has again approached court in Srinagar for a regular passport. “The hearing into my passport case is after two days. I have been issued a restricted and conditional passport,” Iltija said.
She said her mother and grandmother were planning to go for a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. “They intend to go for an Umrah in November,” she said.
