Dual nationality: Legislate for other constitutional posts, says SC

Apex court’s detailed verdict stresses stand on dual nationals.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court in its detailed verdict has declared that a citizen possessing dual nationality cannot be the president, member of the national parliament or provincial assembly — but no such legal bar was placed on other constitutional office holders.

The detailed verdict in parliamentarians’ dual citizenship case by a three-member bench of the apex court was released on Tuesday. Earlier, on September 20, 2012, through a short order, the bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had disqualified a dozen legislators from membership of the National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies after their dual nationality was established.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain authored the 45-page judgment, which was augmented by a 12-page additional note by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja in which he said Section 14(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1951, confers upon Pakistani citizens the right to hold the citizenship of certain other countries without having to forgo their Pakistani citizenship.

“The extent and scope of that legal right has no relevance to the question of disqualification relating to eligibility for being a Member of Parliament or of a provincial assembly,” Justice Khawaja wrote. The judgment lauded the services of Pakistani expatriates but said the question of disqualification of lawmakers was a different matter.

Regarding other constitutional office holders, such as  the president, governors, chief of army staff, judges of the superior courts and auditor general, the judgment said: “Since this issue is not before us, we are not expressing our opinion on it except to say that in terms of Article 41 (2) of the Constitution only a person who qualified to be elected as a Member of the National Assembly can be elected as a President ... it is for the Legislature to decide, whether to amend the Constitution/law if they in their wisdom decided  that on the other constitutional posts, persons holding citizenship of a foreign state are not qualified to hold such posts”.

Justice Khawaja also highlighted the spirit underlying this rule. “The Constitution considers parliamentarians as bearers of a sacred trust ... Foremost amongst these duties is the duty of absolute and undivided loyalty to the beneficiaries i.e. the people of Pakistan, and to avoid conflicts of interest.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik was castigated for filing a false statement claiming that he had renounced his UK citizenship on March 25, 2008, when documents submitted proved that in fact he had done so on April 19, 2012.

The court asked Senator Malik to refund all monetary benefits drawn by him up to 11.7.2012 for the period during which he occupied public office.

COMPLETE TEXT OF THE VERDICT CAN BE VIEWED AT http://goo.gl/S2n6L

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.