Pakistan mulls deal with Turkey on dual nationality

ISLAMABAD: Turkish ambassador to Pakistan, Mustafa Yurdakul on Saturday in an answer to a question said that Turkey and Pakistan were indeed thinking about the prospect of dual citizenship, ARY News reported.

Taking to Twitter, the Turkish ambassador said that the proposed idea is about starting to work on mutual recognition of dual citizenship between Turkey and Pakistan.

Yurdakul said that providing citizens with dual citizenship was not being discussed rather the idea was to add Turkey in the list of countries where Pakistanis may apply for citizenship and be deemed eligible.

I believe, “provision” might is not the accurate term..Proposal is about starting to work on the mutual recognition of dual citizenship (PAK&TURK) holders and determining their status in 🇹🇷&🇵🇰 respectively. (1/2) https://t.co/g5pcsNzolj

— 🇹🇷 Mustafa Yurdakul /مصطفی (@Mustafa_MFA) February 1, 2020

The countries with which Pakistan currently has dual nationality agreements with include the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, Iceland, Italy Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Jordan, Egypt, the Netherlands, Syria, Bahrain, Finland and Denmark.

Pakistanis with dual citizenship are forbidden to run for public office, sit in the assemblies, contest elections or join the Pakistani military.