Supreme court suspends PHC decision granting Afghan man Pakistani citizenship and Pakistani origin card
The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed a Peshawar High Court judgment that an Afghan national, married to a Pakistani woman, was entitled to Pakistani citizenship, pending a final decision on the case.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed allowed the federal government’s appeal against the PHC decision of December 1, 2023, which directed that the Afghan should be provided with a Pakistan Origin Card (POC) along with citizenship.
Additional Solicitor General Rana Asadullah informed the court that the government did not object to the issuance of POCs to these people. However, he maintained that granting citizenship in such cases was not permitted under existing law. He added that the PHC decision had triggered an increase in the number of similar applications. “So far, 117 candidates have come forward,” he told the bench.
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Justice Musarrat Hilali noted that the real number could be much higher. “These are just the ones who came forward,” the judge observed. A lawyer representing the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) argued that Afghan nationals married to Pakistani women must also have a valid visa to be able to obtain documents.
Justice Hilali stressed that the court would have to determine whether an individual had “entered through the door or by climbing the wall”. Asadullah also said contempt petitions were being filed in light of the PHC’s decision, adding urgency to the government’s appeal.
After hearing the initial arguments, the Supreme Court stayed the PHC judgment and issued notices to the respondents. The matter was adjourned to a later date.
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In 2021, a Pakistani woman, Samina Rohi, had challenged Section 10(2) of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951 before the PHC, arguing that the law discriminated against Pakistani women. Under this law, a foreign woman married to a Pakistani man can acquire citizenship, while the same right is not granted to foreign husbands of Pakistani women.
She argued that her Afghan husband, who worked in Kuwait, should be granted citizenship on constitutional grounds.
In 2022, the PHC ruled that the Afghan spouse was entitled to a Pakistani origin card in light of a 2008 Federal Sharia Court judgment declaring Article 10 of the Citizenship Law “unconstitutional and un-Islamic”. The High Court also ordered the Home Ministry to decide the issue of citizenship in accordance with law.
In December 2023, the court ordered that the Afghan receive both a Pakistani origin card and citizenship.
