PESHAWAR, July 8: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the interior division, Islamabad, to file comments on a writ petition filed by a man seeking Pakistani nationality for his Indian born wife.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Ijaz Afzal also extended a stay order issued earlier in favour of Hafsa Aman and directed that she should not be deported till a next order was issued.

The bench directed that the interior division should furnish the comments within a fortnight. The order was issued on the writ petition filed by Aman Khan, husband of Hafsa Aman, praying to the court to declare as unconstitutional and illegal an interior division order through which the Pakistani citizenship to his wife was declined.

On the last hearing held on June 23, the court had ordered the interior division to file comments.Deputy Attorney-General Hamid Farooq Durrani appeared before the bench and stated that the division had not sent comments to him. He requested the court to allow further time for filing the comments.

The bench observed that it was an era of science and technology and comments could be filed in few days. The bench observed that the presence of fax and computer had made it possible for the respondent to send the comments at the earliest.

The bench added that it could not allow more than 15 days to the respondent. Petitioner's counsel Usman Khan Tarlandi stated that the woman had converted to Islam last year and married the petitioner on July 16, 2003. He said that under the Citizenship Act a woman was entitled to Pakistani citizenship if her husband was Pakistani.

The former name of the woman was Divya Dayanan Dan and she was an Indian national. The couple fell in love when they were studying in Ukraine. Aman Khan returned to Pakistan in 1998 without completing his studies.

After obtaining her MD degree in Ukraine Hafsa Khan visited Pakistan and embraced Islam last year on the hands of Hafiz Ghulam Rasul in Karachi. "Under section 10(2) of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951, a woman married to a citizen of Pakistan should be registered as a citizen of Pakistan, whether or not she had completed 21 years of her age," contended Mr Tarlandi.

He said that it was a clear case of discrimination with her. The counsel added that the woman had given an affidavit that she was surrendering her Indian nationality and wanted to live with her husband for the rest of her life, but the authorities had not been accepting her plea.

The petitioner stated that his wife was initially allowed to remain in Pakistan till Aug 14, 2003, through a permit issued on July 18, 2003, under the Foreigners Order, 1951. The permit was issued by the Foreigners Registration Officer/ superintendent of police, Mardan. The permit was extended thrice and the last time it was extended till March 7, 2004.