PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed an American national, who is married to a local woman, to formally approach authorities for the grant of a naturalisation certificate.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal disposed of a petition jointly filed by US national Joshua Steven Beckett and his Pakistani wife to declare that he is entitled to the country’s citizenship and the federal government should grant it to him.

The court’s directions came in light of the comments of the interior ministry and director-general of immigration and passport about the petition.

The ministry and DG said the law in question didn’t have any provision to straightaway grant citizenship certificate to a male foreigner on the basis of his marriage to a Pakistani woman.

They added that the petitioner could only apply for the grant of naturalisation certificate under Section 3 of the Naturalisation Act, 1926, on the prescribed form.

He insisted he was entitled to Pakistani citizenship for marrying local woman

The petition was file through lawyers Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel and Nauman Muhib Kakakhel.

Deputy attorney general Hazrat Said Khan represented the federal government whereas Nadra (National Database and Registration Authority) was represented by its assistant director (legal) Mohammad Mubarak Jan and advocate Shahid Imran Gigyani.

The petitioner’s counsel contended that the US national had converted to Islam from Christianity before marrying the other petitioner, who currently lives in Peshawar.

Mr Saifullah said the American citizen wanted to get Pakistani nationality with his religion as Islam so that he could go to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj and Umrah.

He said his current US passport still declared Christianity as his religion.

The lawyer contended that every person born in Pakistan or married to a Pakistani man or woman was entitled to nationality by virtue of international law on the subject to which Pakistan, too, was a signatory.

He said the couple got married in Karachi on March 6, 2020, and had a daughter from the wedlock, who was born on April 20, 2022.

Mr Saifullah claimed that the petitioners moved to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the poor ‘law and order situation’ in Karachi.

He said as the US citizen had converted to Islam, he could not adjust anymore in the US society and his baby girl was also secure here.

The lawyer said the man was given the Pakistan Origin Card by the government in June 2021 after thorough scrutiny by the government and its agencies, but as the POC was valid for certain period of time, he had invoked the jurisdiction of the high court for getting Pakistani citizenship.

He also said the Federal Shariat Court had already declared unconstitutional and against Quran and Sunnah Section 10(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1951, under which the wife of a Pakistani national was entitled to the country’s citizenship but the same was denied to the foreign husband of a Pakistani woman.

Mr Saifullah said by signing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Pakistan had committed to eliminating gender-based discrimination, but the federal government didn’t make any changes to the Citizenship Act even though the FSC had issued directives for the purpose in clear terms.

He said the denial of citizenship to the US citizen was a violation of the fundamental human rights declared in the Constitution, including protection of a family.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2024