Without a home: PHC seeks MoI reply in citizenship case
Once exiled, families of Gowari tribe have been seeking nationality for decades
PHOTO: PHC WEBSITE
PESHAWAR:
A division bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put Ministry of Interior (MoI) on notice and sought a reply for the failure to grant citizenship to 65 Chitrali families.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, also restrained the district government of Chitral from deporting them.
Arguing before the bench, petitioner Muhammad Yaqoob’s lawyers Asif Khan and Mohibullah Trichvi said the families belonged to the Gowari tribe. They argued the Mehtar-e-Chitral or ruler had exiled them to Afghanistan when the district was a princely state after which they remained in the neighbouring country.
The petitioners stated when the then Soviet Union tried to invade Afghanistan, the families returned to Chitral and filed an application for citizenship. However, several decades had passed, but the Government of Pakistan was not granting permanent citizenship status.
“Besides, the district government was pressurising them to either go back to Afghanistan or register themselves as refugees,” one of the counsels argued. He added the families were also recently issued notices to return to Afghanistan.
The lawyers requested the court to suspend the notice and restrain the district government from sending them back. They also asked the MoI to grant them permanent citizenship.
The bench, after hearing the arguments, sought a reply from the MoI and stayed the families return to Afghanistan.
The same bench, while hearing a habeas corpus appeal, issued a notice to an assistant political agent in Bara, Khyber Agency, for allegedly detaining a citizen without a charge.
Applicant Jasim Khan’s counsel Wali Khan Afridi argued the applicant was a resident of Mattani area in Peshawar and went abroad on a work visa to Dubai on February 5, 2015.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2016.
A division bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put Ministry of Interior (MoI) on notice and sought a reply for the failure to grant citizenship to 65 Chitrali families.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, also restrained the district government of Chitral from deporting them.
Arguing before the bench, petitioner Muhammad Yaqoob’s lawyers Asif Khan and Mohibullah Trichvi said the families belonged to the Gowari tribe. They argued the Mehtar-e-Chitral or ruler had exiled them to Afghanistan when the district was a princely state after which they remained in the neighbouring country.
The petitioners stated when the then Soviet Union tried to invade Afghanistan, the families returned to Chitral and filed an application for citizenship. However, several decades had passed, but the Government of Pakistan was not granting permanent citizenship status.
“Besides, the district government was pressurising them to either go back to Afghanistan or register themselves as refugees,” one of the counsels argued. He added the families were also recently issued notices to return to Afghanistan.
The lawyers requested the court to suspend the notice and restrain the district government from sending them back. They also asked the MoI to grant them permanent citizenship.
The bench, after hearing the arguments, sought a reply from the MoI and stayed the families return to Afghanistan.
The same bench, while hearing a habeas corpus appeal, issued a notice to an assistant political agent in Bara, Khyber Agency, for allegedly detaining a citizen without a charge.
Applicant Jasim Khan’s counsel Wali Khan Afridi argued the applicant was a resident of Mattani area in Peshawar and went abroad on a work visa to Dubai on February 5, 2015.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2016.