National Assembly refuses court order for fresh oaths

In quite a surprising development, the National Assembly Secretariat declined to carry out the Election Commission’s directives to obtain fresh oaths that they don’t hold dual nationality.

The latest development can initiate another round of confrontation between the legislature and the judiciary.

According to the reports, the commission had sent letters to the secretaries of the Senate and the national and provincial assemblies on September 24 in pursuance of a Supreme Court order, asking them to obtain fresh oaths from the members that they did not hold dual nationality.

However, the National Assembly Secretariat asked the ECP to get the documents directly from members of the house, citing that there was no provision in the rules of business for obtaining declarations about dual nationality from lawmakers.

The Supreme Court, on September 20, had disqualified 11 lawmakers for holding dual nationality.

Under article 63(1)(c), dual nationals cannot contest elections for parliament and provincial assemblies but the election commission, in the past, never verified this.

Dozens of lawmakers in the current assemblies are believed to be dual nationals and the court, in its order, had asked the ECP to get fresh declarations from every member within two weeks.

It is vital to mention here that the ECP had earlier written letters to the secretaries of the Senate, the National Assembly, the provincial assemblies and the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and overseas Pakistanis on Aug 29, seeking details within 15 days about legislators holding dual nationality.

The National Assembly and Senate secretariats, that time too, had given almost the same reply.

They were of the opinion that the commission collected nomination papers and declarations from the candidates at the time of elections and maintained the record after scrutiny.

The Balochistan Assembly also said it had no record of dual nationality of lawmakers. The provincial assemblies of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the three ministries did not reply to the letter.

The Punjab Assembly Secretariat said the members had been asked to provide the information within 10 days.

However, the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and overseas Pakistanis did not bother responding to ECP’s request for details at that time too.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 3 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, 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.