Government set to re-elect Malik

The government has decided to re-elect the adviser to the prime minister on interior as senator just a few days after he quit his Senate seat, pleading that he resigned because people were saying that the dual nationality bill was aimed at saving his skin.
Party sources told Business Recorder that the party's top leadership had unanimously decided to file Rehman Malik's nomination papers against a vacant seat in Senate, lying vacant after his resignation on July 10.
However, the final decision will be taken in a meeting of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) scheduled to be held in Karachi. Malik is expected to submit his nomination papers to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on June 20.
The ECP had announced August 8 as election day of a technocrat seat falling vacant after Malik's resignation. The date for Public Notice Inviting Nomination Papers has been set for July 17. Nomination of candidates could be made on July 19-20 (Between 0900 hours to 1600 hours) while scrutiny of the nomination papers will be made on July 23-24 (From 1000 hours to 1400 hours).
Malik resigned following the earlier suspension of his upper house membership by the Supreme Court after he failed to provide documents proving he had given up his British citizenship.
According to Malik, he wound up his business in the UK in 2008 and surrendered his British nationality on the directives of late Benazir Bhutto and her husband President Asif Ali Zardari.
Former secretary of ECP Mohammad Dilshad said that there was no legal bar on him, because the Supreme Court had not convicted him.
"He [Malik] can submit his nomination papers because his case is pending before the apex court for holding dual nationality. He can also appear before the court," he said.
The ruling PPP had passed the controversial dual nationality bill from the Senate despite stiff resistance from the Awami National Party (ANP).
The bill was aimed at giving legal cover to parliamentarians who hold dual citizenships, and who are currently ineligible to hold public office under Article 63 of the Constitution.
Passing such an amendment, which requires support from two-thirds of both houses of parliament, would, in any case, be difficult given the opposition's stated disagreement - but PPP has another problem: an unwilling coalition partner in the Awami National Party (ANP), which also opposes the amendment.
ANP, which has 12 seats in both the National Assembly and Senate, is joined by another ally, the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), in harbouring reservations against the amendment.