News
Friday, July 06, 2012
Moot demands right to contest elections for dual nationals* Conference organised by Daily Times at House of Lords terms bar on dual nationals to contest elections discriminatory
By Asif Mehmood
LONDON: Majority of British Pakistanis attending the Daily Times conference on ‘Role of Overseas Pakistanis in the National Development’ favoured amendment in the constitution to allow dual citizenship holders to contest for and hold public office in Pakistan.
A well-attended conference held at the House of Lords in collaboration with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) of the British Parliament, through a resolution, while noting that the Article 63(1)(C) of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 stipulated that a person is disqualified to hold public office if he ‘ceases’ his original or ‘acquires’ an additional nationality, termed it a law that was discriminatory against Pakistani citizens holding dual nationality and said it must be struck off.
The resolution noted that although this law remained in the statute since 1973, no effort was made by the Election Commission of Pakistan or the judiciary to enforce it in the past, and the recent effort by them to enforce it smacked of selective prejudice, therefore, was unacceptable to dual nationality holders. The Pakistani diaspora came from Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Rochdale, Bolton, Coventry, Rugby, Oldham, Rotherham, and other cities of Britain, and were led by Association of Pakistani Lawyers Chairman Barrister Amjad Malik.
They introduced the resolution, saying the present focus of the law was narrow and it targeted only those seeking public office and excluded other functionaries of the state, such as generals, bureaucrats and judges, whose loyalty to the Pakistani state, they remarked, was neither more nor less than Pakistanis holding dual nationality.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk