By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government has given civil servants who have not disclosed foreign or dual nationalities, their own or their families’, a final week to do so or face disciplinary proceedings.
In an office memorandum issued on Friday, the Establishment Division told all ministries and divisions, as well as provincial chief secretaries and police chiefs, that the deadline for declarations had passed on 1 September. It said a number of officers had still not complied.
The division named the Pakistan Administrative Service (formerly the District Management Group), the Police Service of Pakistan, the Secretariat Group and the Office Management Group. It said the competent authority had directed that officers in those cadres who failed to file within a week would be liable to proceedings under the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020. Reports of the memorandum gave no figure for how many officers were in default.
The Civil Servants (Disclosure and Prohibition of Foreign and Dual Nationality) Rules, 2026, were notified to officers of all cadres and categories in June. Under Rule 3(3), every civil servant had 90 days from publication in the official gazette on 1 June to declare their own and their dependents’ nationality status, any foreign travel documents held, and any marriage to a foreign national. The Establishment Division wrote to departments again on 17 July to remind them of the requirement.
Rule 3(4) states that failing to file, or filing a false declaration, constitutes misconduct under the 2020 efficiency and discipline rules.
The rules go well beyond a one-off declaration. Officers must also state at the time of appointment whether they or any dependant is a foreign national or holds a foreign travel document. Rule 3 says that failure to do so, or a false declaration, “shall render the appointment void ab initio and liable to termination at any time”.
Civil servants must also file annual declarations with their cadre administrators. These cover their own and their dependants’ foreign nationality status, and whether they have obtained, or are seeking, foreign nationality or a foreign travel document without prior sanction. Any marriage involving an officer or dependant and a foreign national must be reported and kept up to date.
The rules generally bar civil servants and their dependants from applying for foreign nationality or a foreign travel document without the approval of the appointing authority. Under Rule 4, no approval may be given for a country in which the officer is serving, or has served, on an accredited diplomatic posting. Where an officer or dependant already holds nationality or documents of such a country, they must be revoked, withdrawn, cancelled or renounced, as the case may be.
Rule 6 says officers who have married, or intend to marry, a foreign national will continue to be governed by the Government Servants (Marriage with Foreign Nationals) Rules, 1962.
The rules were approved by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and followed years of debate in parliament and its standing committees over bureaucrats holding foreign citizenship or residence abroad. The Establishment Division was to keep a centralised record of officers, while cadre administrators were told to maintain and update records for those under their control.
The Establishment Division told a National Assembly committee in January that Pakistan permits dual nationality with 21 countries, though some individuals acquire citizenship of others. In an earlier briefing to a Senate committee, officials said data collection was continuing. Responses from 10 ministries and departments showed one official in the Cabinet Division, two in the Federal Board of Revenue, and 16 in Customs and Inland Revenue holding dual citizenship.
