Passport office chief says

Citizenship doesn’t depend on passport

Citizenship doesn’t depend on passport

Dhaka, Apr 26 (Just News): In reference to the recent debate over BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, the director for immigrations and passport department today said “citizenship does not depend on a passport”.

“There are a lot of Bangladeshis living in the country without a passport,” said Maj Gen Md Masud Rezwan, director general of the Department of Immigration and Passport.

“There is no relation between citizenship and surrendering a passport. If Tarique Rahman wishes to come to Bangladesh, he can, with the travel pass he holds,” Maj Gen Rezwan said.

“Tarique Rahman is currently living in the UK without a passport. He will have to come to Bangladesh, make a national ID card before applying for a new machine-readable passport (MRP),” he added.

Maj Gen Rezwan was briefing journalists at the Department of Immigration and Passport office at Agargaon this morning.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam sparked a debate when he produced some documents and said “Tarique Rahman surrendered his passport to UK authorities, and his citizenship”.

Tarique Rahman resorted to legal actions and served a notice to the junior minister at the same time when his party explained that he surrendered the passport to seek political asylum.

(Justnews/ys/1130hr)