Lahore High Court disqualifies Rana Asif for dual nationality
LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Friday declared former Punjab finance minister Rana Asif Mahmood disqualified from holding the provincial assembly seat for his dual nationality.
The chief justice, on a petition filed by Faisal Ilyas Sadiq who sought disqualification of Rana Asif Mahmood for dual nationality, ordered the election commission to de-notify the former finance minister as a Punjab Assembly member. Rana Asif was elected MPA in 2008 general elections against one of the seats reserved for minorities. He was appointed as the provincial finance minister this year but had resigned over the issue of dual nationality in June just two days before the presentation of provincial budget.
The LHC chief justice had on August 3 suspended his assembly membership. The petitioner’s counsel, Saiful Mulook, had submitted that the apex court had already suspended memberships of many parliamentarians for dual nationality; therefore the assembly membership of the respondent, Rana Asif Mahmood, should be suspended by virtue of him being a Canadian national. He said Rana Asif was a Canadian national and according to Article 63(1) C he could not hold the assembly seat for being a dual national.
Rana Asif’s counsel in rebuttal had taken the plea that the MPA was not a citizen of Canada but enjoyed the status of a national. He said the constitutional bar on parliamentarians with dual nationality did not apply to his client. Saiful Malook, however, claimed that the MPA was trying to delay the matter. He said it was clear that Rana Asif held an overseas identity card, which was issued only to those Pakistani citizens who held the passport of some other country. He produced the copy of that card before the court.
The petitioner said Rana Asif was a Canadian businessman but had got elected as MPA by projecting himself as a Christian. He said some of his opponents who were in search of documents to prove that he was a Canadian national found his overseas Pakistanis identity card that showed him as Muslim. The card was issued to him in 2009. He further claimed that NADRA record showed he has three children who were also Muslim; however his wife is listed as Christian. In reply to the petition Rana Asif said that he was a permanent resident of Canada but not a Canadian national. His counsel took the plea that he (Rana) had been wrongly shown as a Muslim in NADRA’s record due to typographical mistake, which had been corrected.
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