LAHORE – Following the marriage of a Pakistani woman to an Afghan man, a petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking Pakistani citizenship for the husband.
Justice Farooq Haider presided over the hearing on the petition filed by Musarrat Jabeen, which also challenged the Citizenship Act of 1951. The
During the proceedings, the court recommended forming a larger bench to hear the case.
The petitioner argued that under Pakistan’s Citizenship Act, a foreign woman who marries a Pakistani man is granted citizenship, but when a Pakistani woman marries a foreign man within Pakistan, citizenship is not granted.
The petition contended that the Citizenship Act of 1951 is contrary to the Constitution and law, specifically violating Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law.
According to the petitioner, she married an Afghan man named Naseem in 2012. As the government is currently repatriating Afghan nationals, the petitioner has requested the court to grant Pakistani citizenship to her husband and to declare the Citizenship Act of 1951 null and void.
Earlier this week, the LHC directed the interior ministry to clear the status of a Pushtoon family within one month by deciding its appeal against the cancellation of National Identity Cards for allegedly belonging to Afghanistan.
Daray Khan, resident of Daska, Sialkot, had moved an application before the Lahore High Court through his counsel Ch Shoaib Saleem Advocate, alleging that the petitioner had filed an appeal under the NADRA Ordinance 2000 with the interior ministry against cancellation of CNICs of his family on the report of security agencies that he is not a Pakistani and belongs to Afghanistan. He prayed that the appeal is pending with the interior ministry for the last more than six months and there is every probability that the petitioner and his family may suffer dislocation at the hands of the law enforcement agencies for allegedly being the Afghanis.
Repatriation efforts continue as illegal Afghans return home
