Pak SC disqualifies two MP's over dual nationalities at time of contesting election

Two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senators - Haroon Akhtar and Sadia Abbasi - were disqualified by the Supreme Court on Wednesday for holding dual nationalities at the time of filing their nomination papers for the upper house of the parliament.

Akhtar and Abbasi, the sister of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, are members of the upper house of the parliament.

A seven-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar gave the orders of their disqualification under Article 63 (1)(c) of the 1973 Constitution, Dawn reported.

The article pertains to a person's disqualification from Parliament due to holding the nationality of a country other than Pakistan.

The bench said that both the senators possessed dual nationality at the time of submission of their nomination papers for the Senate election held in March this year.

The chief justice also told the counsels of Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar and PML-N's Nuzhat Sadiq to furnish their clients' verified affidavits showing that they had given up their second nationalities before filing their nomination papers.