ECP barred from issuing victory notifications

recorder report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday barred the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from issuing victory notifications of four senators-elect till the final decision in the matter.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing a suo motu case on dual nationality of the judges and the bureaucrats.

After the break, Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf informed the bench that Haroon Akhtar, Sadia Abbasi, Nuzhat Sadiq and Chaudhry Sarwar are dual nationals.

Ch Sarwar contested Senate election on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s ticket, while other three senators-elect contested independently as the Supreme Court judgment on Election Act 2017 had barred the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidates from using of PML-N electoral symbol ‘lion.’

The ECP counsel informed the court that the senators who hold dual nationality had already filed affidavits that they would give up their foreign citizenship.

The Chief Justice issuing notice said they would have to clarify their position before the court.

Earlier, during the hearing, the Chief Justice said that he has read in the newspapers that six senator-elect hold dual nationality, adding there is no judge in Supreme Court and the high courts who is dual national but a few sessions judges have foreign citizenship.

Secretary Establishment Division Maroof Afzal informed the court that in four Groups of the Division – Pakistan Administrative Services, Police Services of Pakistan, Office Management Group and Secretariat Group – there are a total of 2,646 officers and 13 out of them have dual nationality.

He told the court that similarly, in other Occupational Groups which include Military Land and Cantonment, Foreign Services of Pakistan, Information Group, Economist and Planners Group, Railways Group and Postal Services Group, there is no dual national, while in Pakistan Audit and Accounts there are 2, Commerce and Trade, 2, Inland Revenue Service, 4, and Pakistan Customs Service has 3 dual nationals.

The secretary Establishment Division also informed the court that 33 officers in Punjab, five in Sindh, nine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in Balochistan, 28 in AJK and one in Gilgit-Baltistan hold dual nationality. He further told the court that 127 officers working in 42 divisions of the federal government hold foreign citizenship.

Chairman National Database and Registration Authority Yousaf Mobeen proposed if the CNIC numbers of all the officers working in all divisions, provincial governments, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan are provided to Nadra then it would verify their dual nationality. He also suggested that the dual nationality could be checked at the border control areas.

Later, the hearing of the case was adjourned for one week.