Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that dual nationals permanently residing in the country cannot be categorised as ‘Overseas Pakistanis’, a news source reported. To this effect, Justice Jawad Hassan authored a judgment wherein he stated that a person should be living abroad in order for him/her to meet the labelling criteria of the Overseas Pakistani Commission Act 2014.
He delivered the judgement in response to a petition filed by Tanveer Chishti, who had moved the court over the action taken against him by the Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) on a complaint filed by a British-Pakistani national Hafeez Anjum.
Justice Hassan maintained that the Act provides mechanism for the redressal of grievances of Pakistanis abroad and not dual nationals per se. He further directed the OPC, on receipt of any complaint, to review the residential status of the complainant before deciding the matter and forwarding it to the relevant agency.
