Allegiance to your country

Letter August 29, 2011
According to reports, the one who has taken oath this past week has passports of more than one country.

KARACHI: The newly-appointed auditor general of Pakistan is by no means an ordinary person. According to reports, the one who has taken oath this past week has passports of more than one country. However, this example represents only the tip of the dual nationality iceberg in Pakistan.

Some of the prominent dual-nationality Pakistanis whose names have repeatedly appeared in the press include the acting governor of the State Bank, the Governor of Sindh, the federal interior minister, the leader of the MQM and Pakistan’s ambassador to the US. Dozens of other constitutional appointment holders, and hundreds of parliamentarians, politicians and government servants who perform important state functions are alleged to be holding dual nationalities.

What does it mean to be holding a dual nationality in terms of law, ethics, loyalties and interests? Article 63 (1) of the constitution clearly states that a person shall be disqualified from being “elected or chosen as, and from being” a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan, or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state. This clearly means that a person acquiring the citizenship of a foreign state cannot be either elected or chosen or continue to remain as a parliamentarian if he acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.

The constitutional requirement is not without a well considered-rationale. The US oath of citizenship requires a citizen to renounce all allegiance and fidelity to any other foreign state, and if required to, bear arms on behalf of the US against a foreign country. The UK requires citizens to swear a personal oath of allegiance to the Queen and her ‘heirs and successors’ if they wish to become a British citizen.

Why have the people of Pakistan not considered it necessary to protest and get rid of such state functionaries? Why has the Supreme Court not taken note of this?

Naeem Sadiq

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2011.