NewDelhi: Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s name has been removed from the exit control list (ECL) and he has finally been issued a green passport by the new government, led by his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif. Nawaz’s new green passport was processed in the urgent category with 10-year validity with active status in the national immigration and passports department system.
Meanwhile, a controversy over the sought-after diplomatic (red) passport renewal come to the fore last year,- but now chose to apply for an ordinary passport, which has now been issued to the former PM.
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The then-interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had told to media in December 2020 that Nawaz Sharif’s diplomatic passport will be cancelled on February 16, 2021. A red diplomatic passport with five-year validity had been issued to Nawaz on Feb 18, 2016, and the same was used for his travel to the United Kingdom.
Even before appointing his cabinet, newly-elected PM Shehbaz Sharif and the younger brother of the former PM had ordered the issuance of a diplomatic passport to the PML-N supremo, to bring back him to the country,
The newly sworn-in Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah also said last week that a diplomatic passport was a former PM right and would be issued to him.
“It is unfortunate that a person who has been PM thrice is being deprived of national citizenship,” the interior minister had said.
The PML-N supremo was granted an eight-week bail on medical grounds in October 2019, and a month later, he was allowed to travel abroad for treatment for four weeks — but he is still in London.
Although, the former PM Imran Khan had openly said allowing PML-N supremo Nawaz to travel abroad on medical grounds is a mistake.
Earlier, in last week, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) itself dismissed a petition asking the court to stop the expected issuance of a diplomatic passport to former PM Nawaz Sharif, stating that it was “based on unreliable material and is, therefore, frivolous”.
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