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Dual citizens or residents can’t hold office in Pakistan, but this PM had a Green Card

Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi, an economist who held US permanent residency, served as caretaker prime minister for a few months in 1993.

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New Delhi: The recent reports that Pakistan Air Force exchange pilots carrying Qatari passports trained in France to fly Rafale jets has brought the spotlight back on Pakistan’s rules for holding dual citizenship.

Although the country’s laws restrict high-ranking government officials from hold dual citizenships or foreign permanent residencies, Pakistan once had a Green Card holder, Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi, as its caretaker prime minister for a few months in 1993.

The citizenship law has led to major tensions, and it has not been uniformly applied in every case. As recently as December 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the government to immediately act against thousands of officials with alleged dual citizenship. But cases like these keep cropping up among Pakistani officials and lawmakers.

The case of Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi

Following a constitutional crisis in 1993, which forced then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to resign, Qureshi was appointed the caretaker prime minister.

A US-trained economist, Qureshi had a distinguished career at the International Monetary Fund. Thereafter, he served as executive vice-president of the International Finance Commission, and eventually became a senior vice-president at the World Bank. He had married an American, and held a Green Card (US permanent residency).

Between 1955-56 and 1993, Qureshi hardly spent any time in Pakistan — his last official job in the country was at its planning commission. When he was offered the caretaker prime ministership, he was a year removed from his World Bank role, and had started a private hedge fund in the US.

Long after his four months in the PM’s chair, Qureshi’s dual citizenship was brought up in an unrelated court case. In 2002, a US national of Pakistani origin filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court, seeking permission to contest elections in Pakistan. The court raised questions on Qureshi holding US citizenship, but it was clarified that the Green Card wasn’t citizenship.


Also read: Pakistan tried to expose India with Balakot media trip. Instead it blew its cover-up


Pakistan’s application of the law

In 2012, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that parliamentarians couldn’t hold dual citizenships. A three-judge bench led by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry suspended interior minister Rehman Malik from the Senate, and consequently from the ministership. The court observed that Malik was breaking the law by holding dual citizenship — Pakistani and British.

Apart from Malik, the court had also ordered 13 other legislators to verify their nationalities.

Then, in a 52-page 2018 ruling, the Supreme Court asked the central and provincial governments to act against officials who held dual citizenships.

“Presently, 1,116 officials and 1,249 spouses are dual nationals, while 24 foreign nationals are working in various government departments,” it observed.

However, if the pilots trained on the Rafale were indeed Pakistanis holding additional Qatari passports, it would be in direct contravention of its own Supreme Court’s orders.


Also read: When a Pakistan minister & Jinnah follower resigned over atrocities against Hindus


 

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