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
For those who thought that the mere thought of people entering Pakistan illegally was funny:
Please read this:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=stor y_2-12-2004_pg7_29
In year 2004, there were 1.8 million illegal immigrants living in Karachin alone. And the way economies are growing in Asia, it is not foolish to consider that in near future Pakistan might become an attractive place for a lot of nationalities.
Having said that I still believe that laws of the land must be impartial for all citizens. I applaud FSC move in making the law impartial.
I think those men/women should be given the citizenship, but in the case of divorce, their citizenship must be cancelled. After all, they come to Pakistan for their life partners, and not for something else!
I find the many comments here saying that why would anyone want Pakistani citizenship quite funny. Not because the comments are funny, but because it is funny that people would say this.
Maybe because there are actually Pakistanis who have and do marry someone from US, Europe, etc. only so that they can get that nationality people think that this is common behavior. It is not. People mostly marry someone because they like them enough to want to spend their entire life with them.
No, foreigners are not marrying Pakistanis because they desperately want to get Pakistani citizenship. It is because they fall in love with the Pakistani they are marrying! And that is a good thing.
I think some of the silly arguments that officials were making also come from same conclusion.
Yes foreign men should be allowed to get Pakistani citizenship if they marry a Pakistani woman but under the present circumstances and the state of affairs the country is in, why would anybody want to do that ?
Ali
Canada
In my opinion as in Pakistan here is no Islamic Law as dominating so untill Nfaz -e- Sheria these kind of problems will have to face as we take some part of Islam (in favour of Government) in to our laws and rest remains the same from the West that is “aadha teeter aadha batair”
so this is main problem
Thanks