152 govt officials concealed dual nationality, SC told

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday informed the Supreme Court (SC) that 152 government officials had concealed their dual nationality.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing the suo motu case on dual nationalities of government officials.

During the hearing, FIA Director General Bashir Memon informed the apex court that to-date, 655 officials have admitted to possessing dual nationalities.

The FIA DG elaborated that the agency had collected the data of 182,090 officers till March 18. The law enforcement agency also submitted a supplementary report to the apex court.

Moreover, he said that five officials are foreign nationals. At this, the chief justice remarked that if they work day and night the matter can be resolved in days.

He also said that those officials who concealed their foreign nationalities and did not come in the court should face termination from the job.

The chief justice, referring to one of the government an employee who is a foreign national, remarked that Meena Kharal can work in Germany if she is not a Pakistani national.

The DG FIA said that Adnan Mehmood, Hina Kharal, has the nationality of Germany, Sharjeel Murtaza Australia and Abida Javed has Canadian nationality.

Meanwhile, some of the officials also complained over misappropriations in the data collected from the FIA and said that they do not posses dual nationality but their name was also included in the list.

The additional attorney general further informed the bench that data for another 1,000 officials has also been obtained and notices were also published in newspapers advising others to reveal their dual nationality.

According to the FIA DG, they received data of more than 36,000 officers. While 655 government officials confessed to holding dual nationality, 152 kept it hidden.