People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday requested the intervention of Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for her passport, claiming she had been waiting for it for three years in order to send her 80-year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
In a letter to the minister, she stated that her passport renewal was delayed because the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) determined that giving the travel document to her would jeopardise national security. Mehbooba also mentioned the difficulty in obtaining a passport for her daughter Iltija, who wishes to pursue higher education outside of the nation.
"I 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 2020," the letter said.
"J&K CID gave an adverse report that issuing passports to my 80-year-old mother and I 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," Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said in her letter.
She claimed that they approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and that after the matter "dragged" on for three years, the court issued unambiguous instructions that the Regional Passport Office in Srinagar should not act as the CID's "mouthpiece" by rejecting passports on vague grounds.
"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," Mehbooba, who is currently in Jammu, said.
She 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 through".
"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," the PDP leader said.
For the past three years, "I have been waiting eagerly to take my mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca", she stated and added that "as a daughter, I feel sad and anguished to be unable to fulfil such a simple wish because of petty politics".
"I write to you in the hopes that you will look into the matter as soon as possible," she stated in her letter to the foreign minister.
Iltija filed a petition last week for the issuing of a passport, claiming that she requires the travel document urgently in order to pursue her higher studies outside the country.
In her plea, the 35-year-old stated that her passport expired on January 2 and that she requested a new passport in advance on June 8 of last year.
Mehbooba and her mother were denied passports in March 2021 due to an "adverse report" from the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Mehbooba's passport expired on May 31, 2019, and she registered for a new one on December 11, the following year, while her mother, wife of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, applied for a passport in 2020 to travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage.
Mehbooba's passport application is still pending, but her mother's passport was released earlier this month when the high court issued new instructions to the passport officer.
(With Inputs From PTI)