Punjab bureaucrats not ready to furnish details

ISLAMABAD: The dual nationality saga claimed career of many politicians but the bureaucrats succeeded in skillfully dodging the ‘hanging sword’ as no bureaucrat in Punjab has revealed his or her dual nationality, making a mockery of the directives given by both the Punjab and the federal governments, the sources told here on Saturday.

However, Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan showed the inability of his government stating, “How can we come to know about dual nationality of any bureaucrat as we have no official mechanism to do so?”

The official record showed that the Establishment Division sought an affidavit from the civil servants in November last asking them to testify whether or not they were dual nationals.

A 3-page circular was forwarded to the Chief Commissioner Islamabad and the chief secretaries of the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

In the circular those having dual nationality were asked to state when they got dual nationality and how many visits they had paid so far to those countries. They were also required to give information about their kids who were studying in such countries. An official of Punjab Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) on condition of anonymity said that they had sent three reminders to all the government departments to provide details of those officials who hold dual nationality.

“Surprisingly, not a single government department has so far given an ear to our directives as we are yet to receive any report about dual nationality holders in the Punjab bureaucracy,” he said. It is pertinent to mention that the Punjab Assembly passed a joint resolution on June 7, 2012 demanding all the federal and provincial government servants to file affidavits that they do not hold dual nationality and the officials who have dual nationalities should be given a deadline to renounce their second nationality. The resolution also demanded that the government servants who were dual national must be removed from service and should be declared disqualified for the job if they refused to give up their other foreign nationality.

The Supreme Court in its judgment in September 2012 established an important principle that the dual nationals could not be trusted on matters that had significant implications for the state of Pakistan.

Now no dual national can be elected as a member of Parliament or the provincial assemblies but the bureaucrats are yet to come under this law due to absence of proper mechanism to trace their dual nationality.

Talking to ‘The News’ Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan confirmed that no bureaucrat had so far been found holding dual nationality but he refused to concede that bureaucrats were united to save the skin of those officials who hold dual nationality.

“There can be three possibilities in the dual nationality case. First, there is no dual national bureaucrat in Punjab. Secondly, all dual nationals have given up second nationality and are now doing their job quietly. Thirdly, there are dual nationality holders in the Punjab bureaucracy but they are hiding this fact from the provincial government,” he said. He agreed that there was no mechanism available to the provincial government to identify dual nationality holders in the Punjab bureaucracy.