Who is loyal with whom?

The suspension of Farhnaz Ispahani’s membership from National Assembly on the basis of US citizenship by the Supreme Court for Pakistan has started a new legal battle between the ruling executive and judiciary.

However, this is far fro reality. It is not only the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that has been in trouble but many other parties as well will have to face the music.

Members are not restricted to the PPP alone for having dual nationalities, as hyper-nationalist parties like the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have also members of dual citizenships. Although the argument that these parties give is understandable, it is ultimately flawed.

Undoubtedly, they treat overseas Pakistanis as assets and they also explain how it would be difficult to be very successful abroad. Some analysts believe that to not allowing these people to contest polls would be tantamount to disenfranchising this valued demographic.

But disenfranchisement would not be giving them the right to vote even though there is a case against that as well. Here, it is an issue of whether these individuals have the right to be representatives.

There can be a varying number of issues here. For example, a lawmaker need not to be a resident of a constituency to contest elections from there; his/her proposer and seconder need to be.

Why, then, should a candidate who actually lives in a constituency but happens to have the nationality of another country be disbarred?

The answers to these questions lie in deep rooted ideas of who qualifies as a committed and loyal citizen of the Republic.

At the time of acquiring a new nationality, a foreign national renounces, in a manner of speaking, his original nationality. That doesn’t sit well with those seeking a sincere leadership for the country.

If, in the art of the possible, candidates can’t be bothered enough to change nationalities, they could scarcely be expected to sit through in a country when the going gets really tough.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=24530

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jun 2 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan. 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.