SC permits senators-elect with dual nationality to vote for Senate chairmanship

By Abid Khan/Web DESK

LAHORE: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Saturday (today) granted permission to senators-elect, who believed to possess dual nationality, to cast votes in the upcoming election for the Senate chairman on March 12.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, of the apex court head the suo motu case at Lahore Registry.

The bench directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to issue notification of the four winning candidates from ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Earlier, the top court had barred the ECP from notifying the senators-elect.

Three newly elected senators are from ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz while one is affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

These winning candidates include Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s sisters Sadia Abbasi and Nuzhat Sadiq, PML-N backed Haroon Akhtar Khan and PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar.

During the court proceedings today, Chaudhry Sawar appeared before the court and informed the bench that he had already relinquished his British nationality back in 2013.

At which, the chief justice said Chaudhry’s wife, children and assets are still in England. He then inquired the motive behind his decision of surrendering his British citizenship.

Justice Nisar asked whether has he temporarily renounced the foreign nationality.

To which, the PTI leader’s lawyer said the citizenship could be restored, while implying the decision of renouncing the foreign national shouldn’t be doubted.

The CJP then emphasized that the senators-elect with dual nationality would be disqualified upon restoring their forsaken nationalities after submission of an affidavit, pledging to surrender their foreign citizenship permanently.

Justice Nisar then ordered formation of a larger seven-member bench to look into the matter.

This is a complicated matter, he remarked.

Last hearing

At the last hearing on March 8, Justice Nisar directed three senators-elect to submit affidavits, pledging that they have “permanently” and “irrevocably” surrendered their foreign citizenship.

Those who were directed to submit an affidavit include two winning candidates from the PML-N, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s sisters Sadia Abbasi and Nuzhat Sadiq. Similar instructions were given to PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar.

They submitted documents to the bench to substantiate their claims of having renounced the nationality of other countries.

However, another PML-N senator-elect Haroon Akhtar Khan didn’t show up to the court.

In compliance with the top court orders, the ECP on Friday (yesterday) issued the notifications to all “eligible” senators-elect except those who allegedly hold dual nationalities.

The commission issued the notifications of 47 out of 52 senators-elect after they submitted details of their assets.

Those who have been notified included eight senators-elect from Punjab, 12 from Sindh, 10 from Balochistan, 11 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two from Islamabad and four from the Federal Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The electoral body withheld the notifications of five senators-elect, including Nuzhat Sadiq, Chaudhry Sarwar, Haroon Akhter, Sadia Abbasi and independent candidate Khuda Babar from Balochistan.

Their notification were stopped following the orders of the Supreme Court that had restrained the ECP from notifying them until they come clean on dual nationalities.