After struggling for 21 years, a Pakistani woman who went to Rampur after her wedding has finally got Indian citizenship.
Afsheen Murtuza, a Karachi resident, married Murtuza Khan of Rampur way back in 1994.
Her Pakistani citizenship was cancelled in 2008 by the authorities after she returned her passport in 2007 to become an Indian citizen.
The Indian Union Home Ministry on Wednesday sent a certificate of citizenship to her, not just ending years of fight for a document that would give her certain rights, but also giving hope to similar people stuck in a limbo all around the country.
Rampur District Magistrate Rakesh Kumar said on Thursday that “Afsheen Murtuza had applied for the Indian citizenship a long time ago. The process is finally complete now. Our office received the certificate from the Ministry of Home and we have delivered it to her.”
With tears in her eyes, Afsheen told Times of India, “My husband and I had sent our pleas to the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is a dream come true for us.”
“In the past 21 years, we kept getting clearances from one department to another, but the much-awaited citizenship kept eluding us. In fact, we had lost all hope when it actually arrived,” her husband Murtuza Khan said.
