ISLAMABAD: Judges of the Supreme Court informally discussed on Thursday the Senate proceedings regarding dual nationality of superior court judges and came out with an announcement that none of them held dual citizenship.

A short statement issued after a full court meeting “for general information” said that “even otherwise, the Constitution or the Code of Conduct for Judges of the Superior Courts place(s) no bar on judges having dual nationality”.

Earlier, the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) had come out with a similar statement saying neither the chief justice nor any judge of the court held dual nationality.

Political and legal circles started raising this question after the superior courts disqualified a number of legislators for holding dual nationality.

On Feb 3, the Senate decided to discuss the issue after Law Minister Pervez Rasheed informed it that his ministry had not received any response from the Supreme Court registrar to its three letters seeking names of judges with dual nationality.

A bill seeking to bar the judges from holding dual nationality moved by PPP’s Raza Rabbani and Sughra Imam is pending before the standing committee on law and justice.

The matter caught the attention of the Senate after the apex court in its Sept 20, 2012 judgement shut the doors for dual nationals from becoming lawmakers by disqualifying 11 parliamentarians and provincial legislators.

The verdict was issued by a three-judge bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on a petition moved by a citizen from Karachi. It ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify the politicians straightaway because no reference was required from the National Assembly speaker or Senate chairman to the CEC under Article 63(2) of the Constitution, as was done in the case of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in view of the established fact that they had acquired citizenship of foreign states.

The politicians were found guilty of corrupt practices in terms of Section 78 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1976 and the court directed the ECP to register cases against them under sections 193 of the Pakistan Penal Code which asks for a jail term of up to seven years for giving false evidence during judicial proceedings; 196 for using evidence known to be false; 197 for issuing or signing false certificate; 198 for using as true a certificate known to be false; and 199 for false statement made in a declaration which is by law receivable as evidence.

The parliamentarians were also asked to return what they had earned from the exchequer.

EXPATRIATES’ PLIGHT: Chief Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jillani took up an email sent by a Pakistani living in Saudi Arabia.

In his letter, Ali Khan said 3,000 Pakistanis arrested by the Saudi authorities had been in detention in the Jeddah deportation centre for three months. A few of them died in the centre.

The letter was sent to the human rights cell recently set up in the Supreme Court for overseas Pakistanis.

Mr Khan regretted that the Pakistan Embassy in Saudi Arabia which had to prepare exit/deportation documents of these Pakistanis was not taking the matter seriously and as a result scores of expatriates were suffering.

Taking notice of the matter, the chief justice directed Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry to submit a comprehensive report in a week.