The Pakistani woman, Tahira Hazoor, today appealed the Union government to grant her Indian citizenship immediately to enable her to visit her father's last rites in Faislabad in Pakistan.
Tahira was the first woman from Pakistan who married an Indian citizen, Maqbool Ahmad, a resident of Qadian town in Gurdaspur district of Punjab in 2003 when the road was opened between India and Pakistan post Parliament attack in 2001.
She today told the media that she hailed from Faislabad and had been residing in Qadian since October 28, 2003 after her marriage.
Tahira said she had applied for Indian citizenship in the office of the Deputy Commissioner Gurdaspur on March 9, 2011.
Punjab government also recommended her citizenship case to the Union Ministry of home affairs but so far she had not been granted citizenship, officials said here.
She had been residing in the small town of Qadian since 2003 and was not allowed to move outside the town due to the citizenship restrictions, Hazoor said.
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Earlier, she could not attend the marriage of her younger sister in Pakistan on a similar ground. Tahira's father died at Faislabad after a prolonged illness on Tuesday last.
According to the Indian citizenship Act, if a Pakistan national applies for Indian citizenship, he or she is not allowed to go abroad after submitting the documents. In case he or she travels abroad after submitting the documents, then they have to re-apply for Indian citizenship after staying in India for a year, officials said.
But in her case more than 16 months have lapsed after applying but she has not been granted the Indian citizenship, Tahira claimed.