LAHORE, Aug 1: The Lahore High Court admitted to regular hearing on Thursday a Pakistani-American’s plea against loss of Pakistani citizenship and for permission to contest the October polls.

Petitioner Umar Ahmad Ghumman, who was born at Sialkot, migrated to the United States and acquired US nationality in 1994. He still carries a Pakistani passport and national identity card. The Election Commission, however, told him in response to a query that he was not eligible to contest elections under the law and the Constitution.

Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani formulated the following five points and decided to hear arguments from Aug 6:

1. Whether sub-section 3 of Section 14 of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951, insofar as it provides for dual nationality with the United Kingdom alone or with any country which the federal government may by notification specify is hit by Article 25 of the Constitution?

2. Whether in absence of any explicit criterion, the act of the federal government in extending the dual nationality arrangement to 13 countries only, to the exclusion of the United States where millions of Pakistanis reside, could be called a reasonable classification?

3. Whether a citizen by birth who acquires US nationality can be deprived of his Pakistani nationality even if the US does not require him to renounce Pakistani citizenship?

4. Whether a combined reading of Sections 14, 14(a) and 16(4) of the Citizenship Act indicates that Section 14 is period specific, that is, relatable to the time when the Act was passed?

5. Whether the petitioner can seek election seven if he is held to be a citizen of this country notwithstanding Article 63(1) of the Constitution, which mandates that a person shall be disqualified from being or becoming a member of the parliament or of a provincial assembly ‘if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state?’ —Staff Reporter