The Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a petition challenging cancellation of national identity card of a Pakhtun man and Form-B of his two minor daughters. The petitioner, Wali Muhammad Khan, through his counsel Ch Shoaib Saleem advocate, submitted that his family had been living in Pakistan before partition and that he is also paying tax regularly as citizen of the state.
He said the Interior ministry had started targeting Pakhtun citizens and cancelled his CNIC and Form-B of his minor daughters, Somia and Afia, declaring them non-resident. However, he said, the authority amazingly did not issue any such order regarding three other minor children of the petitioner.
The counsel said that targeting Pakhtuns was against their fundamental rights. He further argued that the parents of petitioner still hold CNICs for being lawful citizens of Pakistan and how come their son and granddaughters could be declared as non-citizens. Only the federal government under the Citizenship Act 1951 has the authority to cancel citizenship of anyone living in Pakistan that too only on the grounds if they are found involved in activities against the interest of the state of Pakistan, the lawyer further said. The court expressed serious concerns and questioned if the sensitive agency declares any Pakhtun living in Pakistan as non-citizen what the Nadra is supposed to do.