PESHAWAR, Jan 31: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday admitted for full hearing a writ petition filed by an Indian couple challenging the requirement of paying Rs5 million in their case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Saleem Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem also put on notice the federal interior division and the deputy attorney-general.

The couple, Mr Kaniya Lal and Mrs Nisha Lal, renounced their Pakistani citizenship when they went to India in 1999 and were granted the Indian citizenship. However, in 2004 they came back to Pakistan and applied to the interior division for the restoration of the Pakistani citizenship.

The petition has jointly been filed by the couple. They have challenged a letter of the interior division sent to them by a section officer in which they were directed to deposit five million rupees or equivalent amount in foreign currency for getting the Pakistani citizenship.

Mr Kaniya Lal was a Pakistani national by birth. In 1983, he married Ms Nisha who was an Indian national. After their marriage she also got the Pakistani citizenship. However, when the couple visited India in 1999 they renounced their citizenship.

Mr Kaniya Lal claimed that his brothers and sisters and three children were also Pakistani citizens.

He stated that they had gone to India to look after parents of Mrs Nisha who were seriously ill and they had to prolong their stay there because of this problem. He said they came back to Pakistan in May 2004 and since then their stay permit had had been extended from time to time.Advocate Niaz Wali Khan appeared for the petitioner and contended that the demand made by the interior division was illegal and contrary to the Citizenship Act of Pakistan.

Mr Khan argued that in the Citizenship Act it had not been mentioned that for resuming the Pakistani citizenship, a person would have to pay such a huge amount of money.

He said the interior division had first issued a letter to them on Jan 25, 2006, and a subsequent letter was issued on April 6 in which they were directed to deposit the amount till May 11. He said the petitioners could not pay such a huge amount.