The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared null and void a decision of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) regarding cancellation of the citizenship of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah took the petition filed by Hamdullah through his counsel advocate Kamran Murtaza. During the hearing, Chief Justice Athar Minallah sought a reply from NADRA within two weeks and directed the authority as well as the interior ministry not to take any action against Hamdullah.
A couple of days ago, the authority had declared Hamdullah an ‘alien’ after finding that he had ‘fraudulently obtained’ his computerised national identity card (CNIC), which was subsequently cancelled.
While the government decision had been taken two weeks prior, it came to the limelight only days before the JUI-F’s Azadi March in Islamabad. A notification issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) barring TV channels from inviting Hamdullah to talk shows as a guest had referred to a NADRA letter dated Oct 11.
During the proceedings, Hamdullah said NADRA cancelled his CNIC and he submitted a petition against the decision, however no action was taken on the application for a week. He said NADRA’s decision should be declared void and the interior ministry should be stopped from taking any action.
Officials representing NADRA told the court that in December 2018, a letter was written to the JUI-F leader regarding his citizenship and a district-level committee had been formed. Following this, Hamdullah had appeared before the committee, which had asked him for his documentation. According to NADRA, the documents presented by the JUI-F leader had turned out to be ‘bogus’.
Justice Minallah asked if Hamdullah had any children and whether they had CNICs, to which his lawyer responded in the affirmative. His counsel added that one of Hamdullah’s sons was even in the army. “Can you doubt the citizenship of the husband of a mother who sends her son to sacrifice himself for the country?” the IHC chief justice remarked.
After hearing initial arguments, the IHC decided to suspend NADRA’S decision to cancel Hamdullah’s citizenship.
