Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi Unleashes Scathing Attack on Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the Senate, Declaring That “The State Is Only Like a Mother to Them When They Extract Benefits”; Reveals Cancellation of 22,000 Blue Passports and Upcoming Visa-Frees
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi has made a scathing attack on the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulan Fazlur Rehman in the Senate, only recently any possibility of respecting the organization’s leader was eliminated after he attacked the state following his remarks.
Mohsin Naqvi told the upper house of parliament that the JUI-F has gone over the line and it will get a proper reaction. State is used as a mother only when it is being used for personal gain, he said, “If they keep getting resources, everything is fine; otherwise, everything is wrong. They are using religion and Islam as a business for political, commercial and personal gain but they will no longer get jobs, money or tickets from the state.
The key highlights of the address by the Minister of interior Mohsin Naqvi to the Senate and Standing Committee are as follows:
In a major rebuttal to criticism over the weekend that he had made an effort to reach a backroom deal with Iran, Naqvi said he was making the trip based on instructions from the Prime Minister to settle the Iran crisis and the accusations were “entirely incorrect. A shocking revelation followed, when Naqvi revealed that the same critics had been coming to the government begging for the advent of Governor’s Rule in KP, to bail them out, and asked Barrister Senator Ali Zafar to confirm it.
Naqvi discussed the reforms in Official Passports and Visa-Free Agreements separately when he gave a briefing to the Standing Committee of Interior of National Assembly. The green passport, he said, is expected to gain more ground in rankings in the coming six months, as it already has visa-free deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the deals with Qatar, Kenya, Switzerland and Italy are on the horizon.
Crackdown on Blue Passport Misuse: Naqvi told the media that 70,000 official (blue) passports are issued, but often threatened to annul visa-free arrangements by partner countries because of their high numbers. As a result, 22,000 blue passports have been withdrawn, a temporary ban imposed on the issuance of blue passports has been implemented, and the issuance of e-passports in future will be limited to sitting MNAs for the duration of their term, with the aim of doing away with any possibility of fraud.