Yes, if they want to, they should.
At present, they don’t. Pakistan Citizenship Act currently allows a foreigner girl marrying a Pakistani man to get Pakistani citizenship but not vice versa.
Recently, this question of gender equality got a boost from Federal Shariat Court in Pakistan as they declared the Pakistani Citizenship Act, 1951, to be discriminatory against women. On December 19, 2007, the Federal Shariat Court has asked the president of Pakistan to amend the Pakistan Citizenship Act within six months so that a woman’s foreign husband could get Pakistani citizenship, just like a foreign women married to Pakistani men.
In a 26-page judgment announced by the court, it says:
“We are of the view that Section 10 of the Citizenship
Act is discriminatory, negates gender equality and is in violation of Articles 2-A (Objective Resolution) and 25 (equality of citizens) of the Constitution, also against international commitments of Pakistan and, most importantly, is repugnant to the Holy Quran and Sunnah,â€
According to Dawn news report of December 20, 2007:
The three-member bench comprising FSC Chief Justice Haziqul Khairi, Justice Dr Fida Muhammad Khan and Justice Salahuddin Mirza had taken suo motu notice on a news report in which a woman was denied the right to get Pakistani citizenship for her foreign husband, though the law entitled a man to obtain citizenship for his alien wife.
This same issue was also brought as a legislative bill before the recently out-gone National Assembly on March 18, 2004 but it got killed by the Government after a delibration of two years. The pretext of Government was that a foreign woman marrying a Pakistani man is not same as a foreign man married to a Pakistani woman. Granting citizenship to foreigner men by marrying a Pakistani girl would not only legalize the stay of a large number of illegal immigrants, but would also increase their influx.
The government also stated that the amendment to the current Pakistan Citizenship Act would add to unemployment and a foreign husband, after obtaining the citizenship, could divorce the woman and move around freely in the country.
Besides, in the Government view, it would also be a blanket approval for all foreign nationals to marry Pakistani women and obtain nationality, and majority of them could even misuse this provision, especially Afghan refugees and illegal Bengali and other South Asian immigrants.
I for one, do not agree with above points at all. I believe a family is the unit of society. Government laws should help keeping families together as well as without any gender bias. Laws should be same for both men and women. Therefore in my view the judgment of Federal Shariat Court is the correct one and if acted on, it will go long way in giving equal rights to women and men.
References:
1. Policy for Pakistani Citizenship
2. Paranoia and Patriotism by Irfan Hussain, Dawn, June 17, 2006.
3. MPs for Review of Citizenship Laws: Discrimination Against Women, Dawn, August 25, 2006.
4. Human Righs Commission of Pakistan
hi,iam abdul samad iam an indian,and i love a pakistani girl,we met in yahoo chat,and she too want to marry me,but i dont know how to react to that,bcoz every body says that chatting is fake and is very difficult to marry a pakistani girl due to political issues between the two countries,i want to marry that girl,how can i marry her? i live in india and she is in pak,pls help me,waiting for ur response…pls do reply my id is
Assalamu alaikom,
It has nothing to do with desperation. If a person was truly desperate they would simply go to Pakistan which currently has millions of foreigners living there illegally. I am discussing the desire to live there legally with my family.
The only benefit i receive from moving to Pakistan is to has a closer relationship with my family. Family should play a bigger roll in one’s life than a phone call here and there from the other side of the planet. I think a good expression to display this message is revealed in a quote i heard from a brother at the mesjid “It doesn’t matter how big your tv is, it matters who is there to watch it with you”.
Just to get Pakistani green passport by marring a Pakistani woman? Looks is like a action of a very desprate man.
AOA – I see a lot of people discussing how this doesn’t really affect anyone. I disagree and here is why: I am a American. I reverted/converted to Islam about 6 years ago and about 2 years ago i married a Pakistani student who was here in the states. I have money saved up and desperately seek the option to go to Pakistan and start a business so that i may have my wife, son and myself around family that shares are values. I know this is a huge economic and life style change but i am more than willing to endure that and can even set aside money in a account to secure that I won’t be a financial burden on Pakistan at any time. I don’t see why given these circumstances I cannot even get permanent residency let alone citizenship. Furthermore, my son was denied Pakistani citizenship for the same reason, his FATHER isn’t Pakistani and that all that counts in Pakistan. =/
Yep, definitely should get the citizenship. But it could be risky somehow. should give them permanent residence but not citizenship.