PESHAWAR, May 15: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday set aside an order of the interior division that demanded Rs5 million from a couple for restoring their Pakistani citizenship.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Talat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Ijaz Afzal, allowed a writ petition filed by a couple challenging the demand of the huge sum by the government.

The court directed the interior division to dispose of within a month the application filed by the couple for getting Pakistani citizenship. It also extended their stay permit for three months.

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

The petitioners challenged a letter of the interior division sent by a section officer wherein they were directed to deposit Rs5 million or an equivalent sum in foreign currency for 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 was granted a Pakistani citizenship.

However, when they 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 said that they had gone to India where parents of Mrs Nisha were seriously ill and they had to stay back to look after them. They returned to Pakistan in May 2004 and since then their stay permit had been extended from time to time, he added.

Advocate Niaz Wali Khan appeared on behalf of the petitioners and said that the demand made by the interior division was illegal and contrary to the Citizenship Act of Pakistan.