Loyalty of Dual Nationality Holders Comes under Question in Dr Qadri’s Hearing
By Riaz Haq
CA
Pakistan Supreme Court has dismissed Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s petition to annul the current election commission. The petition was based on a claim that specific procedures laid out in Pakistan’s Constitution to pick the commission members were violated.
The Court, led by Chief Justice Inftikhar Chaudhry, was under no obligation to admit the petition for hearing but it decided to hear it anyway and spent three days on it. And instead of focusing on the merits of the claims in Dr Qadri’s petition, the judges proceeded to attack him personally by questioning his loyalty as a dual Pakistani-Canadian citizen.
The Court ignored Dr Qadri’s plea that he has filed the petition as a Pakistani citizen who has a right to vote in Pakistan as he was concerned about the transparency of the electoral process. The Court also refused to heed Dr Qadri’s argument that Pakistan’s Constitution and laws permit him to hold dual nationality. Instead, the judges demanded that Dr Qadri produce the text of his oath of his Canadian citizenship. The Court then proceeded to read it out and claimed that Dr Qadri’s loyalty, and by extension the loyalty of millions of Pakistanis living abroad as dual nationals, is questionable. This line of questioning was clearly not based on Pakistan’s Constitution and laws which permit Pakistanis to hold dual citizenship with the UK and its former colonies.
As to the Court’s argument about the petitioner’s standing in the case, Dr Qadri responded as follows: “I am a Pakistani but the respected judges during the proceedings called me a foreigner and not only insulted me but the millions of Pakistanis living in foreign countries”. Dr. Qadri cited the precedent of the Court in accepting a petition by Showkat Suhail, a Pakistani-Canadian, in the Memogate case against former Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani.
Dr Qadri pointed out that Justice Chaudhry is sitting on the Supreme Court bench today based on an oath he took under Gen Musharraf’s PCO which was a violation of Pakistan’s Constitution. Eminent Pakistani lawyer Aitazaz Ahsan agreed that the sitting judges’ oath under PCO was a much bigger issue than Dr Qadri’s loyalty oath to the Queen of England.
The overt hostility of Pakistani judges and some in the media toward Pakistani diaspora is especially troubling given the fact that Pakistani economy is being kept afloat by more than a billion dollars a month in remittances. These remittances add up to about five percent of Pakistan’s GDP and represent the largest foreign currency inflow into the country. This is another case of some Pakistanis biting the hands that feed them.
While I agree with the Court’s decision to dismiss Dr Qadri’s petition at this stage, I do think that the Court has left a very bad taste in the mouth of overseas Pakistanis who have become dual nationals. They currently contribute over $12 billion a year to Pakistan’s economy but they have no voice in how the country should be run.
Let me remind all those interested in improving the political process and governance in Pakistan that Dr Qadri has already made an enormous contribution by articulating and pressing for specific steps under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution to rid the Pakistani parliament of corrupt politicians. One obvious result is the recent decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan to work with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan to identify and disqualify tax evaders and loan defaulters from seeking election to parliament.
This latest episode is a reminder that overseas Pakistanis, with or without dual nationality, should demand greater voice in Pakistan’s affairs through their own representatives in Pakistan’s parliament.
