ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday raised questions over the recent election of some senators allegedly possessing dual nationality and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) not to confirm their entry into the upper house of parliament until cleared by it.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz appears to be a major loser since three of its senators would remain unelected, followed by one belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The PML-N senators-elect are Adviser to the Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar, chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Nuzhat Sadiq and the prime minister’s sister Saadia Abbasi. Former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar belongs to the PTI.

All the 52 newly elected senators will take the oath on March 12.

Senators-elect deny being citizens of other countries

“We have come across that four members have foreign nationality, but there is no positive proof of relinquishing their citizenship,” Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed while hearing a suo motu case about dual national civil servants of grade-17 and above as well as members of the judiciary.

“Those who have to make laws have dual nationality,” he regretted.

The four senators-elect are required to appear before the Supreme Court on March 9 in Lahore to prove that they possess nationality or citizenship of no other country but Pakistan, and to ensure that even if they have renounced their dual nationality, the same will not be revived automatically after the expiry of their term of office in the upper house.

The secretaries and heads of 43 different government divisions and departments were present in the Courtroom No 1 when the hearing resumed at 4.30pm on Monday because they were called to attend the hearing when the case was taken up briefly in the morning.

During the proceedings, Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf took the names of newly elected senators who are believed to have dual nationality.

ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad conceded that the interior ministry had communicated to the commission the names of four senators-elect. He also named Zubair Gul and Kauda Babar, but they had lost the Senate elections. He said Nuzhat Sadiq had renounced her US citizenship whereas Saadia Abbasi submitted an affidavit stating that she had surrendered her US citizenship on Feb 7 this year. Likewise, Haroon Akhtar also furnished an affidavit stating that he was not a Canadian national, whereas Chaudhry Sarwar submitted a certificate saying he was not a UK citizen.

When the court asked why these individuals had been allowed to contest the elections, AG Ausaf said it was for the returning officer to object, adding that what was required was that renunciation of the citizenship should be irreversible. He said members of parliament had to relinquish their citizenship before taking the oath.

The Supreme Court ordered the ECP not to notify them as successful members. Besides the senators, the court also summoned the secretaries and heads of all 43 ministries and divisions.

Dual national civil servants

The chief justice asked senior government officers to suggest a mechanism to identify those civil servants who had failed to disclose their dual nationality. Earlier, the court had given them 10 days to volunteer and disclose their dual nationality.

The chief justice conceded that currently there was no law which barred civil servants from holding dual nationality, but there could be a conflict of interest which could prejudice their service of Pakistan.

Establishment Secretary Maroof Afzal informed the court that only 13 officers from four occupational groups of the federal government — Pakistan Administrative Services (PSA) or DMG, Police Services Pakistan (PSP), Office Management Group (OMG) and Secretariat Group — were dual nationals.

In 10 different occupational departments, 11 officers hold foreign nationality. Besides this, 64 dual national officers are in Punjab bureaucracy, five in Sindh, 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight each in Balochistan and AJK and one in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad suggested to the court to constitute a committee comprising Federal Investigation Agency Director General Bashir Memon, Nadra Chairman Usman Yousuf Mobeen, the director general of Passport and Immigration, as well as additional secretaries of the establishment and interior divisions to go through the entire record of the Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) to ascertain the travel record of those officers who went abroad.

The Nadra chairman said the authority would need CNICs of the government servants from the establishment division to filter out how many of them entered the country on documents not issued by Pakistan or under Nicop (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis).

The chief justice asked the court’s IT expert to develop a website and said the government should also do the same and issue a circular voluntarily disclosing the identity of dual national officers. The delinquent officers who failed to volunteer within the stipulated period will be fined Rs20,000.

The chief justice suggested to all stakeholders to hold a meeting at the court premises and develop a pro forma in this regard.

The dual nationality become a sticking point after the Sept 20, 2012 judgement of the apex court which had shut the doors for the dual nationals forever from becoming lawmakers by disqualifying eleven parliamentarians and provincial legislators.

The judgment was issued by a three-judge bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on a petition moved by a common citizen from Karachi.

The verdict had suggested strong measures against such lawmakers by ordering the ECP to launch an exercise of obtaining fresh declarations from parliamentarians and lawmakers on oath to examine their cases individually in addition to de-notify the politicians.

Senators-elect reject ECP claim

The four senators-elect who came in the limelight over the dual nationality issue on Monday rejected the ECP claim.

PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar was quick to tweet and upload his letter to the UK Border Agency dated July 2, 2013 and said that he was de-notified as UK national on July 18, 2013.

He tweeted that the allegation circulating on the media about his dual nationality was absolutely baseless. “I gave up my British nationality when I became the governor of Punjab in 2013. I am now only a Pakistani passport holder.”

Mr Sarwar said he had also surrendered his British passport to the UK Border Agency.

PML-N’s Haroon Akhtar Khan told a TV channel that he had already surrendered his Canadian nationality.

PML-N leader Saad Rafique tweeted that Nuzhat Sadiq had given up her US citizenship in 2012. Nuzhat confirmed the same while talking to Geo News.

Prime minister’s sister Saadia Abbasi in a statement also denied possessing nationality of any country other than Pakistan. Ms Abbasi said she had relinquished her US nationality a day before the Senate elections.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2018