Dual nationalities: Petitions demand removal of officials

Such officials should not be reappointed after resignations, demands petitioner.

KARACHI: Five petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry on Monday against parliamentarians who continue to hold public office despite their dual nationalities.

The petitions demand that all those parliamentarians, who have either been disqualified by the Supreme Court or have resigned because of their dual nationality, are no longer eligible to hold any public office. They must be tried under the law, according to a plea by Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, the vice chairman of the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The petitioner has cited the prime minister’s adviser for oil and natural resources ministry, Dr Asim Hussain, federal interior minister Rehman Malik, interior ministry, Election Commission of Pakistan, Karachi University vice chancellor, secretaries of Senate, foreign affairs ministry, and others as respondents. While deciding his earlier petition on September 20, the apex court had disqualified Rehman Malik and Dr. Asim observing they were not “Sadiq and Amin”. “Since, they are no more Sadiq and Amin, they are a risk to the state, and destroy both the interior and petroleum ministries,” the petitioner stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2012