Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday could not wriggle his way out of his latest legal trouble as the Supreme Court rejected documents he presented in support of his claim that he had renounced his British citizenship.
The documents presented by Malik’s lawyer Chaudhry Azhar consisted of only a form to apply for revocation of citizenship, which did not satisfy the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Azhar sought more time to produce a certificate authenticating Malik’s claim to which the court has given him one more day, failing which the interior minister’s membership of the parliament could be suspended come June 4, the next date of hearing.
The issue of legality of the dual nationality for the parliamentarians gained importance after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that there was no law in the country that barred holding dual nationalities.
But the justices in the Supreme Court not only seem to hold a different opinion but also appear to be in a mood to apply that to all the parliamentarians as they ordered Attorney General Irfan Qadir to get the number of such parliamentarians from all the assemblies.
Earlier, the court had suspended the membership of an MNA and media advisor to the president, Farahnaz Ispahani, on the same issue. The SC had said that the contents of the oath for a foreign country’s nationality, particularly in Ispahani’s case, the US, make it impossible to stay loyal to the applicant’s original country. A conflict of duties could also cause trouble, say for such a person to perform combatant or non-combatant duties against his original country. The court had also hinted at how such a person could easily perform espionage activities.
The Supreme Court, while deliberating on interior minister’s case, remarked that as it suspended Ispahani’s membership, it would do no injustice to anybody. The counsel for the interior minister has meanwhile claimed that Malik is in the UK and would hand him the required documents as soon as he returns from there, which he would then present in the court.
The court has asked the other respondents, Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir and Chaudhry Zahid Iqbal, in the petition filed by Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi to appear before the court on the next hearing failing which their memberships will be suspended.
SC doesn’t buy Malik’s claim of revoking dual nationality
