Ex-king Gyanendra gets 1st passport

AFP

KATHMANDU: Nepal's former king has been given his first passport aged 63, a year-and-a-half after stepping down from the throne, the government said Friday.

Nepal's foreign ministry said it had issued a diplomatic passport to Gyanendra Shah, who left the royal palace in 2008 when the then Maoist-led government abolished the country's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

"We issue diplomatic passports to all former heads of state and heads of government. So it was natural to issue the former king with a diplomatic passport," foreign secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai told AFP.

"We received a formal request a few weeks back through an aide of the former king," he added, but did not say why the request had been made.

A government source said it was the first passport to be given to former king Gyanendra, who did not need travel documents for his official visits as head of state.

Since leaving the throne he has only travelled to India, which has an open border with Nepal.