January 7, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 3, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Jan 6: India on Monday declared Pakistan as among the countries whose nationals would not be entitled to claim the proposed dual citizenship for people of Indian origin, news reports said.

They quoted Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kirshan Advani as saying in Hyderabad that the proposed scheme concerning People of Indian Origin (PIO), to be formally announced by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Jan 9, would not include Pakistanis.

“The grant of dual citizenship won’t be automatic and will be confined to a few countries — which had a similar provision — on the basis of reciprocity,” Advani was quoted as saying.

Stating that the granting of dual citizenship won’t be applicable to Pakistan Advani said the PIO living in UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and some European countries would be entitled to dual citizenship.

“It is not automatic and people would have to apply for it. It would be the Government’s prerogative to grant citizenship to whosoever it thinks is fit,” he said.

There are about 20 million PIO living abroad. All preliminary work had been done and the decision taken after all necessary verifications.—Jay Enn