The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has suspended the decision by the National Database and Registration Authority's (Nadra) to annul the citizenship of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah.
According to a report in Dawn, Hamdullah had filed a petition in IHC in response to which the chief justice of the court had asked NADRA to submit a reply within two weeks. Moreover, the IHC has ordered NADRA and the interior ministry to not engage in any action against the senator.
On Saturday, the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority had sent out an order to TV channels asking them not to invite Hamdullah on their talk shows. The media regulatory body had cited a letter it had received from NADRA which had stated that Hamdullah was an ‘alien’ and his CNIC had been cancelled.
The former senator had put the blame for the happening on state institutions and had claimed that he was being political victimised. Hamdullah had also stated that no one in his family was an ‘alien’ and that his father had been an employee of the education department in 1974.
During the hearing today, NADRA’s representatives informed the court that Hamdullah had been sent a letter regarding his citizenship in 2018. The JUI-F leader had appeared before NADRA but had, according to the registration body’s representatives, provided documents that turned out to be ‘bogus’.
Moreover, Hamdullah’s counsel told the court that the former senator’s children possessed CNICs and one of them was in the army.
Following the arguments, the IHC made the decision to suspend NADRA’s cancellation of Hamdullah’s citizenship.