Salma Agha wants Overseas Citizen of India card

Salma Agha, OIC, Sasha Agha, India, Hockey

New Delhi, May, 2016: India is becoming a prime destination for the artists of Pakistani origin. After Adnan Sami got the Indian citizenship, now is the turn of Salma Agha.

The Pakistani origin actress who acted in Nikaah and whose daughter Sasha Agha made a debut along side Arjun Kapoor in Aurangzeb is seeking the Overseas Citizen of India card.

At present Salma Agha is a British citizen.

Salma Agha’s case is unique in many respects as she is the granddaughter of yesteryear actors Jugal Kishore Mehra and Anwari Begum.

Nasreen Agha, Salma Agha’s mother, too was an actor and did a movie with none other than one of the biggest stars of the Indian cinema, KL Saigal, in the 1946 film “Shahjahan”.

An OCI card holder is quite like an non-resident Indian in financial, economic and educational domains but cannot claim agricultural or plantation properties.

 If Salma Agha gets the OCI card then she would be entitled to multiple-entry and lifelong visa to visit India for any purpose.
However it is not that simple as one can find that Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens cannot claim this as per the rules and the regulations set up by the government.

Salma, was once linked with Mahmud Sipra and Pakistani actor Javed Sheikh, later she was also linked to Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan.  But she ended up marrying one Rahmat Khan and post her painful divorce from him she is now married to Dubai-based businessman Manzar Shah.

Even though she has Pakistani roots, yet Salma Agha much like Adnan Sami, has said that she is Indian by heart. In 2013, she ran into a controversy with Maharashtra Hockey Association when she offered to help the Indian Hockey Team and even sang Chak De India with the players.

When Salma Agha was asked to react, MID Day reported, she burst out in emotion and reportedly said that a true Indian is one whose heart is Indian.

In recent times a lot of Pakistani nationals are being given Indian citizenship, like in the case of a 33-year-old Tahira, from Faisalabad, Pakistan, got one after she completed her mandatory stay in the country. The Pakistani woman had married one Maqbool Ahmad, an Indian from Qadian, in 2003.