MEERUT: The last 34 years have etched several creases on her face. Even a seriously-attempted smile fails to deliver the punch it once carried. The period was also marked with uncertainty as she had no country to call her own. A resident of Pakistan’s Hyderabad, Zubeida Begum was just 25-year-old when she tied the knot with a man from western
Uttar Pradesh’s
Muzaffarnagar
. Full of life and ready to start a new life, she applied for Indian citizenship after crossing over the border.
Now, she is 59. In between, an entire life was lived. She bore two daughters, cared for them as they grew up and got them married.
Sitting in a
quiet corner
of her room in Muzaffarnagar, Zubeida was gazing at a piece of paper on Sunday morning. The letter from Union home ministry declared that she was an Indian citizen. “I should have got it much earlier,” she said, as her husband nodded in agreement.
“I still remember the time when we got married in Pakistan in 1985. After crossing the border, not only did I accept my husband and his family as my own, I also accepted India as my country,” said Zubeida, whose family had moved from Muzaffarnagar’s Kandhla to Pakistan during partition.
Zubeida's husband Syed
Mohammad Javed
, 62, a retired homeopathic doctor, said, “The entire procedure required a lot of paper work, continuous stay in India and most of all patience. Zubeida will finally be able to avail all the facilities as an Indian citizen. Now, we plan to get a domicile certificate and Aadhaar card for her.”
Zubeida was called by district authorities this week and handed over the Indian citizenship documents. “I can finally call this country my own,” she says.
When contacted, local intelligence unit (LIU) inspector Naresh Kumar said, “According to the norms, one needs to stay in India continuously for seven years on a long term visa to become eligible for the citizenship. She went to Pakistan in between on No Objection to Return to India (NORI) visa. Under this visa, a person has to come back to India within a maximum duration of 90 days to keep the Indian citizenship procedure alive. But she failed to do so. So, she reapplied in 2004. But again, she couldn’t fulfill the norms when she went to Pakistan on NORI visa in 2010. She reapplied in 2010 again after which the procedure started again. Also, Pakistan took one year to provide a certificate proof which read that she has surrendered her Pakistani citizenship, which is a must document.”
Currently, in Muzaffarnagar alone, Indian citizenship of 18 Pakistanis who are living in India on long-term visa is pending.
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