Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain has said that several advisers to the interim government have surrendered their diplomatic passports in advance to avoid delays in obtaining visas for future foreign travel.
However, he clarified that neither he nor his wife has surrendered their diplomatic passports.
Touhid made the remarks on Sunday, February 1, while speaking at the closing ceremony of a training programme jointly organised by the Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI) and the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at a hotel in the capital.
Responding to a journalist’s question about reports that he and two other advisers had surrendered their diplomatic passports while several advisers were travelling abroad, Touhid dismissed the claims as misinformation.
“This is where misinformation comes in. Neither my wife nor I have surrendered our diplomatic passports. My passport is still with me and remains valid,” he said. “It would be very unusual for a foreign affairs adviser to surrender a diplomatic passport while in office. I have not done that.”
He acknowledged, however, that a number of advisers had indeed surrendered their diplomatic passports.
“They may need to travel abroad in the future. To avoid delays, they have surrendered their passports in advance,” he said.
When asked whether the move was intended to make it easier to obtain visas, Touhid said the purpose was not to simplify the visa process but to save time.
Explaining further, he said that even if a diplomatic passport is cancelled, visas such as US B-1 and B-2 generally remain valid. “But transferring an existing visa to a new passport takes time. That is why many advisers chose to surrender their diplomatic passports in advance,” he said.
Touhid iterated that reports claiming he or his family members had surrendered diplomatic passports were incorrect.