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Home » Home » Order on Appeal No.664-10/20 Tahseen Ahmed H. Qureshi Vs Directorate General of Immigration & Passports And Ministry of Interior

Order on Appeal No.664-10/20 Tahseen Ahmed H. Qureshi Vs Directorate General of Immigration & Passports And Ministry of Interior

The Ministry of Interior is directed to provide certified copy of Policy – Letter No: 4/ 28/91- PAAS (INT) – 1 Dated: 30-11- 1994 issued by the Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan.

 

The Respondents are directed to provide information, based on the available record as to whether or not “the Government of Pakistan has been pleased to issue the Pakistani Passports to different persons who are Burmese Muslims, at any time, presently or in past, by the different abroad Embassies, Missions, Consulates of Pakistan or inland Passport offices in Pakistan. Also provide certified copy of the policy pertaining to the renewal of passports issued to Burmese Muslims.

 

 

The Respondents are directed to provide requested information about the “national status of the Pakistani Passport holder (old and new) of Burmese Muslims issued by different abroad Embassies, Missions, Consulates of Pakistan offices in Pakistan or inland Passport under the law/ Policy framed by the Government of Pakistan for them

The Respondent are directed to provide certified copy of policy for blacklisting of the issuance of Pakistani passports.

The Respondents are directed to make arrangements for the classification, if required, of the sensitive parts of the Passport and Visa Manual under Section 7 (f) of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 and provide certified copy of the Passport and Visa Manual to the Appellant within 20 working days of the receipt of this Order.

 

To the question of the citizen as to whether or not “the Government of Pakistan has been pleased to issue the Pakistani Passports to different persons who are Burmese Muslims, at any time, presently or in past, by the different abroad Embassies, Missions, Consulates of Pakistan or inland Passport offices in Pakistan”, the Respondent has failed to provide even a simple ‘Yes’, or, ‘No’ answer. The Respondent should have provided answer in affirmative or in negative based on policies in this regard.

It is within the realm of reason to expect that matter of issuing passport and their renewal to Burmese Muslims must have been decided as a matter of policy and documents containing these decisions, applicable in the past and present, should have been provided to the citizen.

The birth-pangs, resulting from the emergence of new era of transparency out of the secretive modes of functioning of public bodies, as light seeks to shine on official files, hitherto kept in the dark from the citizens of Pakistan, because of sunshine Article 19-A and the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 is understandable as the old habits die hard. Emerge we shall from the dark days of secrecy to the brightened days of openness and transparency for so is the will of the citizens of Pakistan expressed through their chosen representatives in the shape of sunshine Article 19-A of the Constitution and the Right of Access to Information Act 2017.

 

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