Pakistan Naturalization and Citizenship

Asia Pakistan

In 1951 Pakistan passed the Citizenship Act. Following are excerpts from that act.

Citizenship at the date of commencement of this Act:
At the Commencement of this Act every person shall be deemed to be a citizen of Pakistan:
 * Who or any of whose parents or grandparents was born in the territory now included in Pakistan and who after the fourteenth day of August, 1947, has not been permanently resident in any country outside Pakistan.
 * Who or any of whose parents or grandparents was born in the territories included in India on the thirty-first day of March, 1937, (and who except in the case of a person who was in the service of Pakistan or of any Government or Administration in Pakistan at the commencement of this Act) or had his domicile within the meaning of part II of the Succession Act, 1925, as in force at the commencement of this Act, in Pakistan or in the territories now included in Pakistan
 * Who is a person naturalized as a British subject in Pakistan; and who, if before the date of the commencement of this Act he has acquired the citizenship of any foreign State, has before that date renounced the same by depositing a declaration in writing to that effect with an authority appointed or empowered to receive it
 * Who before the commencement of this Act migrated to the territories now included in Pakistan from any territory in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent outside those territories with the intention of residing permanently in those territories.

Citizenship by Birth
Every person born in Pakistan after the commencement of this act shall be a citizen of Pakistan by birth.

Provided that a person shall not be such a citizen by virtue of this section if at the time of his birth:


 * His father possesses such immunity from suit and legal process as is accorded to an envoy of an external sovereign power accredited in Pakistan and is not a citizen of Pakistan
 * His father is an enemy alien and the birth occurs in a place then under occupation by the enemy.

Citizenship by Descent
Subject to the provision of section 3 a person born after the commencement of this act, shall be a citizen of Pakistan by descent if his (parent) is a citizen of Pakistan at the time of his birth.

Provided that if the (parent) of such person is a citizen of Pakistan by descent only, that person shall not be a citizen of Pakistan by virtue of this section unless:


 * That person’s birth having, occurred in a country outside Pakistan the birth is registered at Pakistan consulate or Mission in that country, or where there is no Pakistani Consulate or Mission in that country at the prescribed Consulate or Mission or at a Pakistan Consulate or Mission in the country nearest to that country.
 * That person’s (parent), is, at the time of the birth, in the service of any Government in Pakistan.

Citizenship by Migration
The (Federal Government) may, upon his obtaining a certificate of domicile under this Act, register as a citizen of Pakistan by migration any person who (after the commencement of this Act and before the first day of January, 1952, has migrated) to the territories now included in Pakistan from any territory in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent out side those territories, with the intention of residing permanently in those territories:


 * Provided that the Federal Government may, by general or special order exempt any person or class persons from obtaining domicile under this sub-section.

Registration granted under the preceding sub-section shall include besides the person himself, his wife, if any unless his marriage with has been dissolved and any minor child or his dependent whether wholly or partially upon him.

Right of Citizenship of certain persons resident abroad:
The Federal Government may, upon application made to it in this half register as a citizen of Pakistan any person who, or whose father or whose father’s father, who born in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent and who is ordinarily resident in a country outside Pakistan at the commencement of this Act, if he has unless exempted by the Federal Government in this behalf, obtained a certificate of domicile:


 * Provided that a certificate of domicile shall not be required in the case of any such person who is out of Pakistan under the protection of a Pakistan passport, or in the case of any such person whose father or father’s father is at the commencement of this act residing in Pakistan or becomes, before the aforesaid application is made, citizen of Pakistan.

A subject of the State of Jammu and Kashmir who, being under the protection of Pakistan passport, is resident in the United Kingdom or such other country as the Federal Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify in this behalf, shall, without prejudice to his rights and status as subject of that state, be deemed to be, and to have been, a citizen of Pakistan.

Citizenship by Naturalization
The Federal Government may, upon an application made to it in that behalf by any person who has been granted a certificate of naturalization under the Naturalization Act, 1926 register that person as a citizen of Pakistan by naturalization:


 * Provided that the Federal Government may register any person as a citizen of Pakistan without his having obtained a certificate of naturalization as aforesaid.

Registration of Minors
The Federal Government may, upon application to it in this behalf made in the prescribed manner by a parent or a guardian of a minor child of citizen of Pakistan, register the child as citizen of Pakistan.

The Federal Government may in such circumstances as it thinks fit, register any minor, as a citizen of Pakistan.

Renunciation of Citizenship (60)
If any citizen of Pakistan residing outside Pakistan, who is not a minor and:
 * Is also a citizen or national of another country
 * Has been given by the competent authority of another country any valid document assuring him of the grant of the citizenship or nationality of that other country upon renouncing his citizenship of Pakistan, makes in the prescribed manner a declaration renouncing his citizenship of Pakistan, the declaration shall be registered by the prescribed authority, and upon such registration that person shall cease to be a citizen of Pakistan:
 * Provided that, if any such declaration is made during any war in which Pakistan may be engaged, registration thereof shall be withheld until the Federal Government otherwise directs.

60. Inserted by Act No. XVII of 1972

Where a male person ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan:


 * Every such minor child of that person as is residing outside Pakistan shall thereupon cease to be a citizen of Pakistan:
 * Certain persons to be citizens of Pakistan (61, 62): A Person who being a subject of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, has migrated to Pakistan with the intention of residing therein until such time as the relationship between Pakistan and the State is finally determined, shall, without prejudice to his status as such subject, be a citizen of Pakistan.


 * '''61. Inserted Act XXXIX of 1973

62. 1995 SCMR 15554'''

Deprivation of Citizenship
A citizen of Pakistan shall cease to be a citizen of Pakistan if he is deprived of that citizenship by an order under the next following sub-sections.

Subject to the provisions of this section the Federal Government may by order deprive any such citizen of his citizenship if it is satisfied that he obtained his certificate of domicile or certificate of naturalization (under the Naturalization Act, 1926) by means of fraud, false representation or the concealment of any material fact, or if his certificate of naturalization is revoked.

Subject to the provisions of this section the Federal Government may by order deprive any person who is a citizen of Pakistan by naturalization of his citizenship of Pakistan if it is satisfied that the citizen:


 * Has shown himself by any act or speech to be disloyal or disaffected to the Constitution of Pakistan
 * Has, during a war in which Pakistan is or has been engaged, unlawfully traded or communicated with the enemy or engaged in or associated with any business that was to his knowledge carried on in such a manner as to assist the enemy in that war
 * Has within five years of being naturalized been sentenced in any country to imprisonment for a term of not less than 12 months.

Certain persons to lose and others to retain citizenship (68):


 * All persons who at any time before sixteenth day of December 1971, were citizens of Pakistan domiciled in the territories which before said day constituted the Province of East Pakistan and who:
 * Were residing in those territories on that day and are residing therein since that day voluntarily or otherwise shall cease to be citizens of Pakistan
 * Were residing in Pakistan on that day but after that day voluntarily migrate to those territories shall cease to be citizens of Pakistan
 * Were residing in Pakistan on that day and are voluntarily residing therein since that day shall continue to be citizens of Pakistan
 * Were residing in those territories on that day but voluntarily came to Pakistan after that day with the approval of the Federal Government shall continue to be citizens of Pakistan.

Provided that any person referred to in clause (i) whose repatriation to Pakistan has been agreed to by the Federal government and who have not been so repatriated before the commencement of Pakistan Citizenship [Amendment] Ordinance, 1978, shall continue to be citizens of Pakistan.

Any person who, at any time before the sixteenth day of December 1971, was a citizen of Pakistan domiciled in the territories which before the said day constituted the province of East Pakistan and who being under the protection of Pakistan passport, was on that day, or is, residing in any country beyond those territories shall not be deemed to be a citizen of Pakistan unless, upon an application made by him to the Federal Government in this behalf the Federal Government has granted him a certificate that at the date of the certificate he is a citizen of Pakistan.