PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday asked the interior ministry to respond to the petition of a Chinese woman, who is married to a Pakistani man, for Pakistani citizenship.

A bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan directed additional attorney general Syed Attique Shah to file the reply in writing until April 30, the next date of hearing into the petition of Ruxianguli Maikurba.

Siddique Haider Qureshi, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was married to a Pakistani national, Mohammad Zahid, a resident of Peshawar, in China in 1991 and that she shifted to Peshawar in 1993.

He added that the woman had been living in the city since and that she had three children, including two girls, from the wedlock.

The lawyer said his client`s Chinese passport had expired.

He said under Section 10 of the Citizenship Act 1957, a woman married to a Pakistani man was entitled to be issued the country`s citizenship card.

`As my client is legally entitled to be given citizenship, the federal government has not been granting it to her,` he said.

Also, the bench soughtreplies in identical petitions of two Afghan nationals for Pakistani citizenship on the ground that they`re married to Pakistani women.

One of the petitioners, Abdul Haq, said he had married a woman belonging to Mardan district.

The second petitioner, Mohammad Noor, said he married a woman hailing from Peshawar.

Their lawyer said the relevant sections of the Citizenship Act were discriminatory and were in conflict with the Constitution of Pakistan, which guaranteed that discrimination should not be held on basis of gender.

He said the Citizenship Act allowed citizenship to a woman married to a Pakistani man but did not allow the same to a foreigner married to a Pakistani woman.

The lawyer said the Federal Shariat Court in one of its judgment in 2008 declared that the relevant sections of Citizenship Act were contrary to the injunctions of Islam as these were discriminatory.

He requested the court to declare that Section 10 and other sections of Citizenship were in conflict with the Constitution and to direct the federal government to grant Pakistan`s citizenship to his clients. Bureau Report