On SC’s order: Senators-elect with dual nationally provisionally notified

SC forms 7-jduge bench to determine if a person can be elected as MP on surrendering citizenship

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:  

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday issued provisional notification of five senators who allegedly hold dual nationality after the apex court allowed them to take oath and participate in polls scheduled for March 12 for electing the Senate’s chairman and deputy chairman.

The ECP notification was issued on the order of the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench – headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan – hearing a suo motu case against the MPs and civil servants having dual nationality.

The ECP on Friday blocked notification to these senators-elect that include Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s sister Sadia Abbasi, Nuzhat Sadiq and Hamayun Akhtar of the PML-N, Chaudhary Sarwar of the PTI, and an independent candidate, Kuda Babar, from Balochistan.



The SC bench also constituted a seven-member larger bench and sought replies from both sides to determine whether a person who has surrendered his citizenship of any other country can be elected as public representative and whether he or she could become their citizen again.

Appearing before the bench, Barrister Bilal Hassan Minto, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, said the question is whether renunciation of the foreign nationality claimed by senators is permanent under the law of the UK and the US.

He argued on the law and English dictionaries to elaborate the meaning of word ‘acquisition’. He pointed out that Pakistani court had to decide the matter in accordance with the local laws.

Addressing the PTI’s Sawrar, the CJP asked him why he had come to Pakistan if his family and wealth was in the UK. Sarwar said he had surrendered his citizenship in 2013 and that, according to the UK’s laws, the abandoned citizenship could be restored.

The bench observed that apparently he seemed to have surrendered his citizenship on temporary basis.

Sarwar contended that a decision not to allow a person who has surrendered his dual nationality to become a lawmaker would disappoint the overseas citizens who loved the country and sent foreign remittances to it all their lives. “You should not be worried about the overseas Pakistanis. You are in the Supreme Court,” Justice Ahsan told Sawar.

During the proceedings, the CJP said his own daughter is a US citizen and that she has planned to run for an election after coming back to Pakistan. “But, it seems my decision would destroy her plan,” the CJP remarked as the audience in the courtroom cracked up.

“We are protecting the rights of the overseas Pakistanis,” Justice Ahsan further remarked. Chaudhary said whether the overseas Pakistanis would be deprived of their rights.

“You couldn’t get the spirit of law. Your speech may be satisfying you inside but it is not the spirit of law. We have to analyse whether giving up citizenship of any country is temporary or permanent,” the CJP noted.

The Attorney General of Pakistan tolf the court that according to the citizenship laws of the UK, a citizen could gain his status again even after abandoning it. He contended that the Lahore High Court (LHC) had already decided the dual nationality issue in 2002.

Justice Bandial asked Sarwar whether he gave up foreign nationality to become a public representative in Pakistan and he replied: “I would live and die in Pakistan and will submit my affidavit soon before the Supreme Court.



The CJP directed him to submit his affidavit that he would not restore again his UK’s citizenship. He observed that the matter needed a serious deliberation and interpretation of laws including Article 63 (1) (c) of the Constitution.

“Therefore, a seven-member larger bench will be constituted soon to decide the matter,” he observed while also directing the ECP to issue the withheld notifications of the senators as an interim relief.