Pakistan's National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights Wednesday rejected a part of a draft bill which recommended that permission should be granted to holders of dual nationality to contest parliamentary elections.
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment Bill, 2014, which was introduced by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) proposed the right to vote as well as contest elections be granted to Pakistanis holding dual nationality, Dawn online reported.
The committee approved one part of the proposed bill, thereby accepting the right of Pakistanis with dual nationality to vote. However, it rejected the part dealing with their right to contest elections.
The bill, piloted by MQM's S.A. Iqbal Qadri in the National Assembly in October, sought amendments to Articles 51, 63 and 106 of the Constitution.
"A majority of the members rejected the provision of allowing dual nationality for parliamentarians," Dawn quoted Qadri as saying.
Meanwhile, about the recovery of minor girl students of a seminary from a house and an apartment in Karachi, officials of the human rights division informed the committee that it was not a case of human trafficking.
The officials said the girls had been sent to Karachi willingly by their parents for religious education because of free accommodation, clothes and other necessities of life offered to them.
Police recovered 36 girls in November. They hailed from Bajaur Agency of FATA, and were reportedly handed over to a family by a teacher and a supervisor of a seminary over a monetary dispute.
