Due procedure should be followed for passport to Geelani: Cong

Congress today said due procedures should be followed while deciding on the application for issuance of passport to hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for visiting his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia.

"There is a set procedure which should be followed while issuing passport to any individual," AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad said in Srinagar.

Asked if the Congress was in favour of issuing passport to Geelani, he said, "I am not aware of individual cases."

"It is not good to wave the flag of another nation on our soil," the Congress leader responded to a question on the hoisting of Pakistani flag during Geelani's rally in Tral area of Kashmir on April 15.

In Jammu, talking to reporters, Congress's national spokeperson said, "The matter should be discussed by the Central and State governments." The governments could consider his activities and then take a decision in this regard.

"I do not know the reason (why Geelani has been denied a passport). If somebody wants a passport to meet his daughter or travel abroad for treatment of some ailment or to attend relatives' marriage, it is a matter of the governments to take a call on it," he said.