ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the National Assembly membership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Malik Jamil Awan and directed that the copies of the court’s order be sent to the secretary Election Commission and secretary National Assembly.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard a petition seeking disqualification of parliamentarians holding dual nationality.During the hearing, counsel for Malik Jamil Awan told the court that his client had the nationality of Holland but not the citizenship. The court observed that holding dual nationalities is a violation of the constitution.
The court while suspending the National Assembly membership of Malik Jamil Awan directed that a copy of the order of the court be sent to the secretary National Assembly.During the hearing, Anwar Mansoor Khan, counsel for Adviser to PM on Interior Rehman Malik, raised an objection that the bench was hearing the case and contended that the court should refer the instant case either to the speaker National Assembly or Senate chairman.
At one point, Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that former prime ministers Shaukat Aziz and Moeen Qureshi also had dual nationalities.Justice Jawwad S Khawaja asked the learned counsel that he may bring petitions in this regard and the court would issue notices to them. Later, the court adjourned the hearing till today (Wednesday)
One Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi had filed a petition in the court, requesting to direct the ECP to obtain complete record of parliamentarians who hold dual nationalities. He further pleaded the court to disqualify such parliamentarians and restrain them from contesting the next general elections.
Earlier, the apex court had suspended the National Assembly membership of PPP’s Zahid Iqbal and also re-issued notices to other parliamentarians for holding dual nationality.
Similarly, the court had already suspended the membership of Farahnaz Ispahani, spouse of Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, and Rehman Malik, former interior minister, for holding dual nationalities. Likewise, the court on June 13, had also suspended the membership of Muhammad Ikhlaq and Amna Butter, MPAs of the Punjab Assembly, and Dr Ahmed Ali, MPA, Sindh Assembly, after they admitted to holding American and British citizenships respectively.