Pakistani diplomats get US nationality for children

Several Pakistan diplomats, who served in the United States, have obtained nationality for their newborn children in spite of ban by the Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
According to sources, one such diplomat who recently flouted the rule happens to be no other person but the former consul general of New York.
Shaukat Haroon, a seasoned career diplomat, who was Pakistan’s consul general in New York for three years, had applied for and obtained US naturalisation for his newborn son, Muhammad bin Haroon in 1996 when he was posted at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations.
To keep the matter secret, it is alleged that Haroon obtained the US citizenship of his son through immigration offices in the west coast. It is also alleged that he showed his son’s place of birth being Los Angeles even though he was born in New York. How that was possible, is not known.
According to the source, the boy was born in the US in 1996 during the time his father Haroon was working at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Prior to being posted in New York as Pakistan’s Consul General, Haroon reportedly applied for a diplomatic visa for his US-born child with the US embassy based in Islamabad. Whether the embassy or the foreign office was aware of his son being a US citizen is not known.
Foreign country citizenships for diplomats’ children, though banned, have been obtained by several Pakistani diplomats in the past. Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad, who settled in the United States after retirement, has two sons who are US citizens as they were born in New York during their father’s posting at Pakistan Mission to the United Nations.
Similarly, former ambassador to the US, Ahmad Kamal did not return to Pakistan after his retirement. He stayed back in the United States with his son who was born there.
Dr Shami was another individual who on his son’s birthday reportedly missed the UNSC session in which Kashmir resolution was deleted from the UNSC Agenda in 1996.
He and his mission did not get Kashmir deletion news from United Nations Security Council for about five days as Shami was reportedly busy visiting the US immigration departments to get his sons naturalisation and citizenship certificate.
Mansoor Sohail, the Ministry of Information official with the Pakistan Mission to UN, also got US citizenship for his three children while he remained at his New York posting for 11 years.