ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan issued notices on Thursday to 20 former lawmakers who had tendered their resignations for holding dual nationalities.

The three member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry instructed the respondents to appear before court on April in person or through counsel.

During the hearing the court inquired from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about the reasons for not disqualifying the dual-nation lawmakers and asked as to why were  criminal cases not proceeded against the former members of provincial and national assemblies, when they had submitted their resignations.

The former lawmakers against whom the court issued notices include Dr Asim Hussain, Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, Murad Ali Shah, Dr Muhammad Ali Shah (late), Sadiq Ali Memon, Abdul Moeed Siddiqui, Askari Taqvi, Muhammad Raza Haroon, Dr Nadeem Ehsan, Syed Tayyab Hassan, Fauzia Ejaz, Sabeen Rizvi, Arish Kumar, Dr Donya Aziz, Arif Aziz Sheikh, Jamil Ahmed Malik, Faiza Asghar, Dr Tahir Ali, Jamil Ashraf and Javaid Iqbal Tarkai.

The court also refereed to the dual nationality case pertaining to Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid (PML-Q) lawmaker Shehnaz Shaikh, whose national assembly membership was suspended and was ordered to return back all perks and privileges  received as a lawmaker, and said that the same action was not taken in  other cases pertaining to dual nationality.