Mehbooba writes to Jaishankar on delay in issue of passports to Muftis

She says ‘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’

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday wrote a letter to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the delay in issuing passports to the Muftis.

“I am writing to you about a matter that has dragged on needlessly for the last three years. My mother and I applied for passport renewal in March 2020. Jammu and Kashmir CID gave an adverse report that issuing passports to my eighty-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,” Ms. Mufti said in the letter.

Ms. Mufti said she approached the Passport Authority of India multiple times since 2021 and “unfortunately have not received a positive response”. 

“We moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and after the case dragged on for three years, the honourable court gave clear directions that the Regional Passport Officer in Srinagar shouldn’t operate as CID’s mouthpiece by denying passports on vague grounds,” Ms. Mufti said.

Ms. Mufti informed Mr. Jaishankar that she intends to take her mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca. “As a daughter, I feel pained and anguished to be unable to fulfil such a simple wish because of petty politics. I write to you [Mr. Jaishankar] hoping that you will look into the matter urgently,” Ms. Mufti said.

She said the inordinate and deliberate delay in issuing her passport is a grave violation of her 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,” Ms. Mufti wrote.

She also highlighted the case of her daughter lltija Mufti. “She applied for her passport renewal in June 2022. Her application too is in limbo and it seems that the Passport Officer in Srinagar is yet again failing to discharge its duty,” the former Chief Minister said.