Islamabad (TIP) : Pakistani lawmakers are mulling a proposed amendment to the civil service rules that will bar top government officials from holding dual nationality and could affect over 20,000 bureaucrats, according to a media report on Feb 11.

The Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951 explicitly allows a citizen of Pakistan to hold dual nationality. Pakistanis with dual citizenship are currently forbidden to run for public office, sit in parliament, contest elections or join the army. In a ruling in September 2012, the country’s top court disqualified eleven lawmakers for failing to disclose their dual nationalities upon taking office. The amendment to the civil service rules came up before the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday during a discussion on the ‘The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021′ moved by Senator Afnan Ullah Khan in the sitting held on January 17, 2022.

The proposed amendment bars civil servants from holding dual nationality and suggests a timeline for dual national civil servants to relinquish their foreign nationality, the Dawn newspaper reported. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan was of the view that government servants should not hold dual nationality during service, arguing that one person cannot be loyal to two countries at the same time. (PTI)