ISLAMABAD - As the dual nationality controversy is now highlighting the seriousness of the issue, documents have revealed that the wives of 19 senior and junior officials of the Foreign Office (FO) enjoy foreign nationality, reported Waqt News.
It also said that the wives of six officials held dual nationality. Furthermore, the wives of 13 officials hold only foreign nationality.
The spouses of Additional Secretary Sarwar A Junejo, Pakistani Ambassador in Romania Rab Nawaz Khan, Deputy Head of Mission in Rome Rahim Hayat Qureshi and Khalid Majid, a consular in the London embassy, are the dual nationality holders while enjoying British citizenship as well. Similarly, the wife of Qasim Muhayuddin (posted as second secretary in Tehran) is another dual nationality holder with US nationality.
The details of the 13 officials whose wives failed to take Pakistani nationality are: Ambassador in Malaysia Masood Khalid (wife a South Korean), Ambassador in Australia Khalid Abdullah (Japanese wife), FO Director General Zaheer A Janjua (wife is a US national), FO Director Ahmed Hussain (Dutch wife), consular in Sarajevo with a Algerian wife, FO Director Ali Javed (Moroccan wife), Consular in Tokyo Ali Asad Gilani (Japanese wife) and Deputy Chief of Protocol Murad Ashraf Janjua (wife is Turkish).
Three other junior officials – Baqir Hussain Shah, Mehmood Akhtar and Rehan Muhammad – have Tunisian, Iranian and Japanese spouses respectively.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the ‘public at large’ to provide concrete information, if any, to the Commission regarding dual nationality of any Senator, Member National Assembly or Member Provincial Assembly, the electoral body said on Wednesday.
According to a press release, the ECP has written a letter to the Secretaries at National Assembly, Senate, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Provincial Assemblies of all the four provinces to obtain the names of such Parliamentarians who have dual nationalities and pass the relevant information on to the ECP at the earliest possible, not later than two weeks.