Passport, citizenship not necessarily linked: DG Masud Rezwan

Passports and citizenship are not necessarily related, Director General of the Department of Immigration and Passports Masud Rezwan says in his comments on Tarique Rahman.

“Citizenship is a different matter. If somebody wishes to give up Bangladesh citizenship, that’s a different issue,” Major General Rezwan said.

“Not every Bangladeshi citizen has a passport. Does it mean they have lost citizenship?” he said.

Rezwan responded to the debate over passport handover by the acting BNP chief for political asylum in London, when a reporter in a news conference on Thursday pressed him to comment on the issue.

Tarique Rahman surrendered his Bangladesh passport in 2014 to the Bangladesh High Commission in London after he had extended its validity once in 2010, Rezwan said.

“I have checked all the details that ensure he has never applied for a new Bangladeshi passport.”

“Therefore, he is staying in London without a Bangladeshi passport,” he said.

Tarique Rahman went abroad in 2008 on his hand-written passport as the department had not begun issuing machine-readable passports back then. In London, he had extended the validity of the passport dated to expire in 2010.

A person cannot get a passport within five years after he is sentenced to two years or more in jail, said the DG citing the Passport Act 1973.

Similarly, a person will not be eligible for a passport if he skips court appearances in any case filed against him under the Penal Code.

“Therefore, he will not get a passport even if he applies from London,” he said adding that Tarique must come to Bangladesh using a travel pass to get his NID first.

“Only then he can apply for a passport.”