The Government has restored the religious column in the Passport. For the last six months thousands of letters to editor from common man and hundreds of columns from intellectuals and professional journalists like Mir Jamilur Rehman, Kamran Shafi, have appeared. Most of them are critical to a religion column in the passport.
I am a common man. ALHAMADOLLILAH I am a Muslim. A real Muslim not a Sunni or Shia. I am not closed minded. None in my family had ever been a Mullah or a Moulvi. Neither I am a too liberal nor an orthodox. My wife does not wear Hijab but I have advised my growing daughter of 13 sometime to wear open face hijab and some time not as she should be prepared for all circumstances in the future.
I have lived abroad for more than 22 years so frequently traveling. In these 22 years at none of the International airports or in any country of my residence ever any authority asked or checked my religion ON my passport. Hence I am not aware what benefit or damage Pakistan would get now that religion column has been re-inserted nor do I know during these 4-6 months period when religious column was removed what benefit or damage Pakistan got. One Pakistani Dr. Abdul Alim from Yemen says that actions speak louder than words. He says through its action Pakistani cabinet has made sure that We Again Face Embarrassment on foreign Airports to answer queries about the religion entries in our Passports. People like this respectable Doctor are in fact the real trouble for our country. As I said I have lived abroad for 22 years too frequently traveling During all these 22 years not even once at any airport in the world any immigration authority ever raised me any question about presence of religion column in my passport. Even after traveling /11. None I am confident would under a practical oath come forward if someone was ever asked the question abroad “why is religious column in your passport” The immigration authorities world over before mine or Dr. Alim’s traveling well know presence or deletion of religious or any other column present in Passport as under the universal rule a specimen copy of passport each country invariably sends to the other immigration authority. Whether there is a column of religion or not, the fact is foreign immigration authorities know well Pakistan is a Muslim country and majority of travelers are Muslims. Even world over today it is well known Muslims names have words like Muhammad, Ahmed, Ali etc hence present of religion mentioned thereon has never caused any embarrassment as Dr. Alim and other like him allege.
Most of the writers, as is usual a habit with we the Pakistanis, to show their liberalism say no where in the world any authority asks which religion you belongs too. This is totally wrong. I have lived in Europe and Middle East too. Where ever I went for applying a visa or during residence for registration in the relevant Forms mostly there had been a column of religion. For example the last country in Middle East where I remained 6 years there was a National Identity Card system renewable and each time it was renewed the column of religion had to be ticked. For residence in most of these countries applying for relevant permission there had always been a column of religion. For my last stay in Middle East my residence permission called “Residence Permit/Iqama” Application had a column of applicants religion.
Another argument these so called liberal columnists put is that entries in the Passports are universal and none has a religion column. They are wrong. Though there are certain universal standard entries in passports like First Name, Surname, date & place of birth etc but many countries have added additional different entries. For example British passport does not have entry for National Identity Card or Personal Identification Number. Pakistani passport and many other countries have this column. British immigration authorities have never raised any finger why Pakistani passport has this column. Indian and Sri Lankan Passports have columns for Father, Mother and Spouse names. Pakistan has in existing manual passports only father/husband name. Philippines has a column in case of emergency or death to whom to contact which many countries like Pakistan do not have. I can quote many other such examples which suggest there is no standard universal format set for a Passport. The only thing is there is a standard set for certain invariable entries.
All these people have criticized MAA/Moulvis that they had been wasting nation’s time and creating a bad image of Pakistan by raising a NON ISSUE namely religious column. But are all these critics themselves not wasting time on NON ISSUES? These critics say MAA should had given attention to real issues like increasing cost of living. But have these critics themselves given attention to REAL ISSUES as far as Passport matter is concerned? Certainly not. For example Government announced in December 2004 that all manual passports would be cancelled in June 2006 and people would be required to replace their passports with new MRRs. Till this second week of April 2005 still Manual Passports are being issued and are likely to remain issued even till December 2005. Had these intellectual critics been real honest in criticism and not criticizing merely because MAA belong to religious people then they should had written their articles on the REAL ISSUES namely injustice and cruelty forcing the people to replace these passports by June 2006 whereas not 100% arrangements have been made for issuance of MRRs. After charging a full fee for a 5 year Passport forcing the people to spend fresh for a new passport before expiry of existing one is a Real Issue which these critics themselves forgot to raise criticizing MAA. These intellectuals and so called soft enlightened people forget to raise another Real Issue that most of the countries like Britain, India give 10 years passport, Pakistan should do the same instead raising the money by replacement technique.