For ‘Kashmir cause’: AJK lawmakers want blue passports

MUZAFFARABAD:

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has asked the federal government to issue blue and diplomatic passports to assembly members.

In a letter to the federal government, the AJK government has cited a unanimous resolution passed by the assembly on December 9, 2014 seeking blue and diplomatic passports for members.

“The federal government should issue blue passports to MLAs and diplomatic ones to the speaker and deputy speaker as it has been issuing such travel documents to the National Assembly members,” says the letter directed to the Kashmir affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan federal minister.

AJK Small Industries Minister Akbar Ibrahim said the elected representatives frequently travel abroad in connection with the Kashmir cause and blue passports would facilitate their travel.

“Keeping the Kashmir cause in view, the federal government should issue the blue and diplomatic passports to AJK lawmakers,” he said.

“The AJK government and members should do something for the welfare of the people rather than demanding better passports for undertaking trips overseas under the garb of the Kashmir cause,” commented senior lawyer Raja Sajjad.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2015.