Pakistan: Duel nationality blues

EDITORIAL:Frontier Post

What else could be the intent of tinkering with the double nationality law if not to enable a select clutch of beneficiaries to keep holding on to their parliamentary memberships and ministerial jobs? The very contention of the law minister that the amended dual nationality law will be applicable to 16 countries alone indeed says it all. This, the knowledgeable people insist, would cover all those parliamentarians and ministers who the government wants to protect from being disqualified under the double nationality law as it exists now. They are even naming names of the potential beneficiaries. Indeed, the excuse the official hierarchs are trotting out for this legislative ambush is all obscene. Pakistan may be having double citizenship agreements with those 16 countries. But those deals provide only that their citizens and the Pakistani nationals could have two citizenships simultaneously. But that doesn't postulate that they would also be entitled to the parliamentary memberships and public offices. In fact, these positions are open only to the citizens holding the citizenship of only their own country, not to those in possession of double nationality. The reason is simple. In the case of double nationality, the element of conflict of interest creeps in inevitably, influencing its holder's acts in the public sphere. Not only on issues of foreign policy but even in internal matters, including economic affairs and business and trade. This could be visualised from the anecdote of a minister's reaction to the Kerry-Lugar law enacted by the US Congress for aid to Pakistan. The enactment was hinged on a set of disgraceful conditionalities that almost gave an incisive role to the US administration in our internal defence and security matters and reduced this country virtually into the status of colony of the United States. It stirred widespread anger across the cross-section of our polity. Yet the minister statedly penned down a laudatory resolution thanking the American administration and congress for this enactment profusely and brought it to the cabinet for adoption. But since the public backlash was too severe to the enactment to adopt the resolution, the minister had to be ticked off by the prime minister and he dropped it grudgingly. Indeed, the double nationality could only be anathema to the acute sensitivity of defence and security spheres. Even as one doesn't doubt the patriotism of a double citizenship holder, one cannot take chances in these spheres, so vital are these to the nation's security and stability. While the cabinet routinely is taken into confidence on highly sensitive security affairs and secrets of top confidentiality are made known to it, even the parliament's members at times are made privy to them. One may be hard put to recall how many times over these past four years or so have the parliamentarians been given in-camera security briefings, apart from the select parliamentary committees, in full house of the two chambers separately as well as collectively by the top military leadership and intelligence top echelons. With members of double nationality sitting both in the parliament and in the ministerial cabinets, one can never be sure of the confidentiality of information of highly-sensitive secrets divulged in those briefings not being breached and leaked to alien powers. Indeed, foreign powers and intelligence agencies are not unknown for planting their moles in other countries in ministerial cabinets as well as in other segments of polity, including legislatures. This is quite a known fact; and not infrequently respectable-looking figures the world over have been discovered to be the moles of foreign powers. In our case, a highly-regarded finance minister of late Ayub Khan's cabinet was latterly found to be on the US payrolls. He would often pass on the sensitive information divulged in the cabinet meetings to his contacts in the US embassy here. So, one has to be very wary of this double nationality. Voting right to the holders of double citizenship is all right. In our case, this is all the more imperative, when our overseas citizens have traditionally been a big contributor of foreign exchange to our cash-strapped exchequer. But one cannot take any risk at all with our national security. The doors of our parliamentary membership and ministerial slots certainly cannot be opened up to the double nationality holders. If they want to be in those places, they must renounce their foreign nationality. That is a must. And the government is well advised to review its act and withdraw the bill to amend the double nationality law.