RIYADH, 22 December 2003 — Saudi passports cannot be used as a means of identification in the Kingdom, Interior Minister Prince Naif said here yesterday.
The prince said it had come to his attention that many Saudis were using their passports to identify themselves but said passports “are only a method to facilitate travel abroad or moving from one country to another.”
The interior minister said some government offices were issuing national ID cards based on Saudi passports.
Prince Naif has instructed both public and private sector organizations not to accept Saudi passports as proof of identity.
The prince said the only acceptable identification was the civil status card for Saudis and the iqama for non-Saudis.
He said Saudi passports are sometimes issued to non-Saudis. “The reason why they were given Saudi passports was to ease their travel abroad.” But in the Kingdom, the proper means of identification “is the iqama or the temporary card issued by the Passports Department,” Prince Naif said.
Meanwhile in Jeddah, a family from Pakistan have been stripped of their Saudi citizenship because the father was “involved in sorcery,” a local newspaper reported.
The man had been sentenced to four years in prison.
The entire family were arrested at the end of Ramadan and were kept in the deportation jail in Madinah until their case was transferred.
Their lawyer, Abdullah Al-Saqeeh, has filed to exempt the mother and children from deportation since they were all born in Saudi Arabia and had nothing to do with the man’s crime.
After serving his four years, the father had gone to the Department for Civilian Affairs to register his youngest daughter but was told he had been stripped of his citizenship and was wanted for deportation. Instead he fled to Jeddah.
