The Election Commission of Pakistan must be appreciated for implementing Article 63-1 of the Constitution. But why is it applicable only to our parliamentarians? Surely, this should apply equally to all the other pillars of government as well: the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the armed forces etc.
I hope the summary being moved by the law ministry on this will cover that any and all people being paid from the Government Treasury, should be Pakistanis and must not hold dual nationality nor have foreign passports.
MAQBOOL H H RAHIMTOOLA
Karachi
(II)
The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that from the coming Senate Elections, which is expected to take place in March 2012, onward anyone having double nationality will be disqualified to contest elections in Pakistan.
There are very good reasons for such a regulation. Citizenship is usually conferred upon newcomers by making them to take an oath or a pledge that they will serve the country’s interest which is about to confer its citizenship. In today’s globalised world, dual citizenship will bring the holder into a moral dilemma as to which interest to serve when there is a clash of interest between the two countries the citizenship of whom he is holding.
Though Great Britain is the former colonial master of Pakistan, responsible for the millions of dead and displaced during the partition, and though the US since the fifties has been interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs while trampling upon its sovereignty, Pakistanis for one reason or the other prefer to hold exactly the citizenship of those two enemies of Pakistan. A clash of interest is, therefore, inevitable. While the regulation announced by the EC is therefore much in the interest of the country, its effect will depend on its implementation which is usually an entirely different matter in Pakistani practice.
I suggest law should be made to disqualify all those who have accounts and properties in Swiss, US and European safe havens. This money of ours is not taxed in our country but is rather used by these banks to finance wars and propaganda.
ALI ASHRAF KHAN
Karachi