On September 20, the apex court had disqualified all federal and provincial lawmakers with dual nationalities from holding any public offices.
On Monday, the MQM’s federal minister for overseas Pakistanis, Dr Farooq Sattar, filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution in the Supreme Court Karachi Registry citing the secretary of federal ministry of law and parliamentary affairs, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and all provincial election commissioners as respondents.
After the apex court’s judgment, the election commission had asked all the candidates to file their affidavits confirming that they had no nationality of any other country except Pakistan.
Sattar, also the convener of the MQM’s coordination committee, submitted that he had also received an intimation notice from the ECP on November 1 to file his affidavit within 30 days.
Referring to legal provisions, the petitioner has argued that overseas Pakistanis as well as those holding dual nationality have the constitutional right to contest election under the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951.
On September 25, 1972, an amendment was made to the Citizenship Act through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1971. Ultimately, sub-section 3 was inserted to Section 14 of the Citizenship Act of 1951, which clearly meant that a citizen of Pakistan was permitted under the law to collaterally hold dual nationality of the United Kingdom and its colonies or any other country, which the federal government had notified.
The MQM leader also stated that as a minister, he had also received complaints from overseas Pakistanis, who send billions of rupees to the country through foreign remittances.
The court has also been requested to permanently suspend the requirement of filing affidavits as asked by the election commission or grant interim injunction until the petition is disposed of.
The apex court was, moreover, requested to constitute a larger bench to revisit the order given by the three-member bench.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2012.
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