LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar on Saturday resumed hearing of a suo motu case on the dual nationality of lawmakers at the Upper House of parliament at the Lahore Registry.
During the hearing, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) senator-elect Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar told the court that he had renounced his British nationality in 2013.
The chief justice queried whether he gave up his British nationality for good, or temporarily, to which the counsel for Sarwar said that under British law, nationality could be restored.
To this, Justice Nisar observed that it appeared Sarwar temporarily renounced his British nationality so that he could “become a governor and after enjoying the mandates, could restore his [British] nationality.”
The chief justice remarked that Sarwar must give an undertaking that he would never restore his British nationality.
If you restore your British nationality, then this would call for a disqualification, Justice Nisar observed.
The chief justice observed earlier this week that the apex court would rule on the dual nationality of senators before the election of the Senate chairman on March 12.
Earlier in the week, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to halt the notification announcing the victory of four individuals in Senate elections for possessing dual nationalities. Following the order, the ECP withheld notifications of PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Haroon Akhtar, Saadya Abbasi and Nuzhat Sadiq.
Published in Daily Times, March 11th 2018.