For those who advocate granting constitutional right to dual nationality holders to contest parliamentary elections in Pakistan, I have a question. If George Galloway, a British national by birth, were to willingly adopt Pakistani nationality, will he be eligible to be a member of House of Commons or House of Lords? The answer is no. It is the last and most recent oath of loyalty which an individual takes that matters and not the original nationality that he had. I have great respect and admiration for Lord Nazeer who holds a British passport, but if any of his British born children were to take a US passport pledging loyalty to USA, thereby renouncing loyalty to Her Majesty and the UK, they would become ineligible to contest elections for the House of Commons, House of Lords or hold any public office and ambassadorial assignment. It seems this coalition govt would go to any extent and submit to blackmail of their coalition partners at any cost, even if this compromises our state sovereignty, economic viability and defensive nuclear capability.
ANEELA CHANDIO
Sukkur
Men like Lord Nazeer do not have a Pakistani passport, which is why they have a NICOP that facilitates them from visa restrictions. What sort of nationals are these who hold a US passport, or British Passport, or a Canadian Passport, but not a Pakistani passport. Does Altaf Hussain posess a valid Pakistan Passport?. No he does not, nor did Farrah Isphani, neither Admiral Mansoor Ul Haq.
There is no way that a non-citizen of Pakistan be permitted to contest elections or hold public office. When a Pakistani acquires the Nationality / Citizenship of another country his Pakistani Passport and citizenship etc should automatically stand cancelled. The constitution is very clear on the subject.
@ T.Malik …. Admiral Mansoor may have acquired a Nationality other then Pakistani only after retirement from active service.
Dual nationality case should be dealt with some acumen and sagacity. The blind targeting of parliamentarians by Supreme Court is making situation worse. Through a constitutional prism if we analyze this case, it is duty of legislature to decide the nationality case not the Supreme Court. Or even Supreme Court can not abstain interfering in this matter it should refer this case to parliament. I have read a few posts that talk about the family having foreign nationality and that is helpful to flee the country there were references to Nisar and JI leaders. It is interesting that people are not honest to open their mouth about Imran Khan and his family. I am the supporter of dualnationality but one has to be honest across the board. Irony is after PCO CJ could not get Hussain Haqqani in Memo case, he went against his family. Four years in her term, all of a sudden it dawned on the CJ that she has dual citizenship! This is a war against the parliament by the unelected PCO judge who cannot wait for the next elections to implement the law across the board? The NA/Senate should hold the session and clarify the law so the election commission could use it when approving the nomination papers not four years later on a personal grudge.
The main question is dual nationality and it should be decided. If one has nationality especially by birth and never renounced it then he/she is a national. People who claim that a person who acquired another nationality has renounced Pakistani nationality are ill informed. An example is Pakistani Americans applying for Indian visa are required by the Indian govt to use their Pakistani passport. Or if they only want to use their US passport they have to obtain a document from Pakistani consulate/govt called renunciation certificate. That is the proof they have given up Pakistani nationality are are now only US citizens. The point is without renunciation nobody loses their birth nationality in Pakistan. The more practical and fair way is to have a residency requirement of say a couple of years to contest a high office. Pakistani citizens even without dual nationality living overseas are no better than the people who obtained dual nationality for their jobs and education of their children. Residency in Pakistan shows more commitment to the country than the color of the passport.
Courts are busy in witch-hunting of PPP members. There hundreds of thousands Pakistanis that retain dual nationality and they are the one who are major sources of foreign exchange. They must be happy with this biased decision of court. Courts are bound to interpret constitution and they are very much bounded to the same constitution. I have a question do constitution envisage arbitrary disqualification of millions of Pakistanis that holddual-nationality? I am sure not. Courts are running their own parallel government that is not bound to any law or constitution. We strongly condemn this decision of court.
Parliament should move towards proper legislation and bloc the way of Judiciary to interfere in the matters fall under the jurisdiction of Parliament. Dual nationality case must be decided by the parliament, judiciary is over-stepping in this issue. As far as Mian Nawaz Sharif or PML-N is concerned it is damaging very basis of democracy just to appease few psychopaths in Islamabad. It is Ttime for the elected parliament to take control of the out of control paid Govt servants on the extensions. How about the accountability of the generals and judges who have committed worst crimes against the country, called high treason? Any person who has committed high treason must be tried for that and there should be no exceptions including the PCO judges.
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