LAHORE, July 30: Section 14 of the Citizenship Act, 1951, is unconstitutional inasmuch as it discriminates between Pakistanis settled in Britain and 12 other countries on the one hand and the United States and the rest of the world on the other, two lawyers submitted before Justice Tasadduq Husain Jilani of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.

Assisting the court in adjudicating a Pakistani-American’s plea for permission to contest the October elections, Advocates Mansoor Ali Shah and Umar Ata Bandial said the provision was also bad in law because it conferred too wide a power on the federal government to notify the countries the acquisition of whose citizenship would not affect the original nationality of a Pakistani settler.

The question has arisen in a petition moved by Umar Ahmad Ghuman, who says that he acquired the US nationality without renouncing his Pakistani citizenship. He should, therefore, be allowed to contest the elections.

The Election Commission, however, told him that under Section 14 of the 1951 Act, a Pakistani does not have to expressly renounce his citizenship; it is automatically terminated when he acquires nationality of another state. According to Article 63 (1) (C) of the Constitution, the EC said, a person is disqualified from being or becoming a member of parliament or of a provincial assembly if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires citizenship of a foreign state.

The federal government said in its comments that the law created reasonable exemptions where Pakistan had entered dual nationality agreements with foreign countries. No discrimination had been practised and Britain and 12 other countries, whose own laws provided for dual nationality arrangements, were exempted. The US law did not permit dual nationality and no agreement could be signed. There was no unbridled exercise of power.

Advocate Shah said Section 14 was repugnant to Article 9 of the Constitution which guaranteed the right to life together with all concomitant rights like the right to vote and the right to contest polls. It also contravened Article 25, which barred discrimination.

The hearing was adjourned for Wednesday for submissions by Advocate Shabbar Raza Rizvi, the third amicus curiae.