Senate question hour: ‘CSS guidelines bar dual national bureaucrats’

Under these guidelines, they must surrender other nationality.

ISLAMABAD:

The contentious dual nationality issue dominated the Senate question hour on Friday, after the government informed lawmakers that civil servants must surrender their other nationalities according to Central Superior Services (CSS) guidelines.

“Under rule 6(iii) of the CSS examination 2009 guidelines, after the candidate with dual nationality has been selected for the Civil Service Academy, he or she must inform the government and surrender his or her other nationality,” the Establishment Division informed the upper house of the Parliament in a written explanation.

Following the aforementioned explanation, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sughra Imam, who had questioned why dual nationals were ineligible for government service, complained the reply was unsatisfactory and requested Senate Chairman Nayyer Bokhari to fix the question for the next rota day for further explanation.

While deferring the dual nationality question, Bokhari expressed annoyance over the absence of ministers concerned in the Senate session. In the previous session, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had promised he would clarify Pakistan’s lack of dual-citizenship agreement with the US.

Meanwhile, Law Minister Farooq H Naek told The Express Tribune that the government is planning to consolidate the 22nd and 23rd amendments, both of which pertain to dual nationality, in order to develop consensus on the issue.

‘CCP ensuring free competition’

During the course of proceedings, Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Saleem Mandviwala informed senators that the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) is ensuring free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity to enhance efficiency and protect consumers from cartelisation.

“We have taken action against 298 undertakings for cartelisation,” he told senators.

Providing details, the BoI chairman said CCP had imposed a Rs6.3 billion fine on cement manufacturers. Similarly, jute mills were fined for Rs23 million while Rs50 million fines was imposed on the poultry association, ghee mills association and banks over ATM cash withdrawal charges.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2012.