Malik submits nomination papers for Senate seat

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik submitted nomination papers for a Senate seat on Friday.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had called on members of the Sindh Assembly to nominate a new candidate for the Senate from the province after the seat was vacated by Malik following his resignation.
The polling for the seat will be held on August 8, 2012.
Showing the renunciation certificate from the United Kingdom’s border agency, Malik assured that he is only a Pakistani citizen now and does not hold any other nationalities. He showed his Pakistani National Identity Card to the media to confirm his claim.
The documents will be scrutinized on July 23 and 24 while candidates can withdraw their nomination papers by July 30, 2012.
Speaking to the journalists after submitting his nomination papers, Malik said that he has always supported and followed the orders of the Supreme Court.
He said that he would not comment on the documents he submitted because they were under scrutiny. He further said that the documents could be obtained by anyone to see as he had publicized them.
Malik said, “The basic reason for my resignation was that for many days Nawaz Sharif had been saying that dual nationality bill was passed because of (me) and that their party will not support the dual nationality law. So, I told him that Pakistanis living abroad who send in billions of dollars should not be victimized and I decided to pull out myself from this issue.”
He said that now the PML-N leaders should vote in favour of dual nationality because it’s right of overseas Pakistanis. “Those who were born in Pakistan and moved out of the country for livelihood or securing their children’s future should be supported to retain their dual nationality – not of all countries, but only those Pakistan is in agreement with according to the 1951 citizenship certificate.”