Supreme Court rejects documents submitted by Rehman Malik

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday rejected the documents submitted by Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, giving him a one-day deadline to prove that he has quitted his British nationality.

According to the media reports, his failure in satisfying the apex court by submitting the receipt of the payment to renounce his dual nationality may cause him to lose his membership of the Senate, the Upper House of Parliament.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while hearing the petition filed against legislators holding dual nationality expressed annoyance over Chaudhry Azhar, the counsel for Rehman Malik.

He observed, “You are showing us the form. Show us the declaration renouncing his (British) citizenship”.

In the meanwhile, the three-member bench of the apex court issued directives to Attorney General Irfan Qadir to write the national and provincial assemblies for information regarding MNAs and MPAs with dual citizenships.

Earlier, the counsel for Interior Minister failed to produce any evidence of Rehman Malik renouncing his dual nationality. Submitting an affidavit before the court, the lawyer stated that he renounced his citizenship in 2008 but he failed to produce any document in support of his claim.

Chaudhry Azhar attempted to shift the court’s attention towards technicalities of the supporting documents but the bench did not accept the arguments, saying that all he had to do was show the receipt of the payment made to forge the British nationality.

In the course of previous hearing, the apex court suspended the National Assembly membership of Farahnaz Ispahani, media adviser to President Asif Ali Zardari and wife of former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, for holding a US citizenship.

The court had also issued warning to Rehman Malik over the matter too. The court gave an extension to the interior minister as per his request to provide the receipt, warning that if he failed to provide it, his membership in the parliament would also be suspended on May 30.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi, who alleged that Rehman Malik held British nationality.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on May 30 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.