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
i am malaysian n i have twins babies ready for my pakistan citizen husband.n i want to come to pakistan with my childrens to stay with my husbands family.wat am i should do?please help me.
I also want to marry a white europian muslim, so they should let this law off.
Prohibiting foreign born men living or desiring to live in Pakistan who are engaged or married to a Pakistani woman the right to become a legalized citizen of Pakistan if he so desires is an attempt at disunity of family and the married couple.
If a man moves to Pakistan, marries a Pakistani woman, lives there, obtains residency status, and continues to be a part of the Pakistani community for a determined length of time, as there is for foreign born wives of Pakistani men, then he definitely should be granted citizenship if he so wishes. However, I don’t see foreign born women or men beating down the door to give up their foreign citizenship to become Pakistani citizens. It’s just not worth it nor is it rational…what would be the gain? What exactly does being a Pakistani citizen have as compared to being a citizen of the US or UK? Nada. No health care benefits, no social security benefits, no retirement benefits, no disability benefits, no social services…nothing.
Blanket approval for foreign nationalists? What? Okay…I can see an Afghani or Bengal man wanting to do this but surely there will be much resistance from the girls family for such a union and secondly Pakistan doesn’t have to just give stamp of approval but set up guidelines to help weed out fake or green card marriages. As many Pakistani men that marry foreigners in attempt to obtain green cards in foreign countries, surely the Pakistani Gov’t can see through such deceit from foreign men trying to do the same thing to them.
If the economic condition or future outlook of Pakistan was positive, then I could see a concern about foreign men marrying & using Pakistani women solely to establish residency or citizenship status. For a small to moderate price I am sure there are many parents who would willingly marry their daughter to a foreign born non-Pakistani. However, being realistic the demand is not there regardless. So, chances are very good that if a man marries a Pakistani woman then he is doing so with no ill intent nor desires of personal gain.
As for concerns that the man might divorce his wife in the future, the divorce rate in Pakistan among Pakistani married couples is increasing and not non-existent so why set a higher standard for foreign born citizens than there is for natural born citizens? Chances are if he married and divorced a Pakistani woman he is probably more likely to marry another Pakitani woman anyway so its not as if he has become less Pakistani at heart because of a divorce.
I had no idea that if a “man” divorced his wife that he was not permitted to roam around Pakistan freely?!! I suppose there is a special village for divorced men??!! lol
The Pakistani Gov’t needs to be more concerned with the thousands of Pakistani men that leave Pakistan and are marrying foreign women and giving up their Pakistani citizenship. Less and less of these men are ever actually returning to Pakistan except to visit. The Pakistani Gov’t needs to ask itself why this is happening. If this continues, Pakistans male/female ratio will become increasingly unbalanced and thus the only solution will be an increase in one man having multiple wives….as if 1 wife isn’t enough trouble & expense for any man! lol
Assalamualaikum,
i m indian national, i have many relatives in pakistan, i want to marry with my cousin & also want to stay in rawalpindi, how is possible, can anyone help me please? what should i do? i m in saudi arabia now.
I was wondering what is the update or outcome of this story? Have foreign men married to Pakistani women been granted the right to Pakistani citizenship?