Joy says he has permanent residency in US, travels ‘proudly’ on his Bangladesh passport

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy has refuted the BNP’s claim that he has a foreign passport, saying he only has permanent residency in the United States.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy (File Photo) Sajeeb Wazed Joy (File Photo)

On Monday, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam ‘lied’ that the party’s acting chief Tarique Rahman has renounced his Bangladesh citizenship by surrendering his passport.

The BNP leader brought up the cases of Joy and his cousin Tulip Siddiq, a member of the British Parliament.

“The people who surrender their passports are those who marry foreigners and receive foreign citizenship and are holding various positions abroad,” Rizvi said.

 

Rizvi claimed the Zia family had not married any foreigner or taken foreign citizenship.

In a Facebook post later in the night, Joy said the BNP was “so thoroughly dishonest”.

“You cannot believe anything coming out of any of their mouths,” he wrote.

He shared the bdnews24.com report on Shahriar presenting copies of a UK Home Office letter and Tarique’s passport to back the state minister’s claim that the acting BNP chief and his family’s passports were handed over to the Bangladesh High Commission in London.

“Also,” Joy wrote, “I don't have any foreign passport. I have permanent residency in the US.”

“I travel proudly on my green Bangladesh passport,” he added.

Joy, the grandson of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, lived in India with his mother after most members of the family were killed in the Aug 15, 1975 carnage. He later started living in the US.