J-K MLA demands passport for Sajad Gani Lone after application remains uncleared for 3 years
Lone is a Cabinet minister (BJP quota) in the Mufti Muhammad Sayeed-led Peoples Democratic Party and BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Close on the heels of the issue of a passport for Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Independent MLA Engineer Rashid on Friday said the government also issue separatist-turned-mainstream leader Sajjad Gani Lone.
Lone is a Cabinet minister (BJP quota) in the Mufti Muhammad Sayeed-led Peoples Democratic Party and BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir.
"A senior cabinet minister like Sajjad Lone is also without a passport. It not only speaks volumes about the trust deficit between those who are believed to be representing Delhi in Kashmir but also exposes the ill designs of New Delhi about Kashmir," the lawmaker said.
"If New Delhi is afraid of issuing a passport to a minister who is in alliance with the party claiming to be most nationalist and ruling the country, how can a common Kashmir expect the current government and its ministers to protect its rights?" Rashid asked.
"Not issuing a passport to Sajjad Lone has proved that New Delhi has miserably failed to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiri people and treats controlling Kashmir only through the barrel of a gun. It certainly means that it will take New Delhi another century to create a few loyalists in the Valley," Rashid said.
Repeated phone calls to Sajjad Lone went unanswered.
Sources said Lone had applied for passport three years ago. However, he has not been given clearance so far. Lone is married to Asma Khan, only daughter of pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder and life-long JKLF chairman Amanullah Khan, who is based in Pakistan.
In the 2008 Assembly elections, Lone had supported the boycott call of separatists, presuming that after long agitation against transfer of forest land to Amarnath Shrine Board and subsequent alleged economic blockade of the Valley the people would refrain from voting. However, there was huge participation of people in the elections.
In 2009, Lone took the plunge into electoral politics from north Kashmir's Baramulla Parliamentary constituency but lost to the NC candidate Sharif Din Shariq.