They said that the former federal minister reached at airport on wee hours on Saturday to catch a Dubai-bound flight number EK-615. Her next destination was Canada, they said. However, when the officials of Passport and Immigration Department of FIA scanned her blue passport the screen of system got locked with showing notes “In case of interception immediately inform passport and Immigration department. Personal details are CNIC No is 3460389025818 passport holder name is Firdous Ashiq Awan; Father name is Ashiq Hussain Malik; Document Country is Pakistan; Nationality is PK; Birth Dates 11 Jan 67; belongs to Sialkot” the sources mentioned. They added the officials of FIA have immediately confisticated her passport and denied her access to aeroplane ready to fly to Dubai. “Moreover, the government of Pakistan has put the blue passport of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on black list,” sources revealed. They also informed that Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan had showed up her Pakistani green passport and sought permission for travel which was also denied by the officials of FIA Passport and Immigration because she had not obtained visa for Canada on her Pakistani passport.
On this, the Passport and Immigration Department of FIA have off loaded ex-Special Assistant to Punjab’s former CM Sardar Usman Khan Buzdar, from the Dubai-bound flight for using the blue passport illegally. According to FIA Passport and Immigration Department experts the official blue passport allows entry to some 70 countries around the world without the formality of a visa and only government employees and lawmakers are authorised to carry it. They said that the blue passport cannot be used without having any official status and has to be returned after quitting the government office. Nonetheless, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan had not returned the blue passport to government despite leaving her office.
“Had the passenger been allowed to travel on blue passport, she could have been got on arrival visa at any Canadian airport,” they said. According to media reports, the PTI leader and former federal minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan denied the reports that she was escaping to Canada from Islamabad by using blue passport.
She further claimed that she was allowed to use blue passport according to law and after being elected as MNA.
She added she had obtained visa for Dubai from Embassy through note verbal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on same blue passport to attend Women’s Peace Cup being held in Dubai on August 21, 2022.
But, the sources in FIA Passport and Immigration Department, confirmed that she had kept insisting FIA officers to allow her travel to Canada on Pakistani green passport which was denied and she was off loaded from the aeroplane.
After, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan returned home.