DHAKA, 10 April 2005 — The government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is working on a draft law to strip the citizenship of those found guilty of sedition or deemed harmful to the state, Home Ministry sources said yesterday.
A six-member inter-ministerial committee has been assigned to scrutinize the draft bill, prepared by the Law Commission, the sources said. The commission is headed by Justice Mostafa Kamal, a former chief justice, and has Justice Mohammed Sirajul Haque and M. Enamul Haque as members.
After scrutiny, the bill will be placed before the Cabinet for its approval and if approved it will then be placed before Parliament, the sources said. After its passage, the government, unlike other countries, will enjoy authority to cancel the citizenship of those found guilty of sedition or deemed harmful to the security and sovereignty of the state, the sources said.
Citizenship issues are now dealt with under a law titled the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary) Order 1972 (President’s Order), amended twice in 1973 and 1978. The President’s Order was enacted on the basis of the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951.
None of the laws gives the government authority, which the bill proposes, to revoke the citizenship of anyone on the grounds of sedition or for being harmful to the state.
In Pakistan, the citizenship act provides some grounds for involuntary loss of citizenship. The grounds are a person’s obtaining foreign citizenship, naturalized citizenship obtained through fraud or falsity, disloyalty of a naturalized citizen to the government, conviction of a naturalized citizen of crime in the first five years of citizenship and residency outside the country for over seven years without registering with the Pakistani consulate.
In India, where dual citizenship is not allowed, people cease to be citizens of India on voluntarily acquiring the citizenship of another country. In no country, the government has authority to revoke anyone’s citizenship on the grounds of sedition or for being harmful to the state, experts said. The draft in question proposes six modes of acquiring citizenship of Bangladesh. A person born in Bangladesh will be considered a citizen if either of the parents is a citizen of Bangladesh at the time of his or her birth, said the sources.
The existing law allows no one to be a citizen of Bangladesh by birth if his or her father is not a citizen at the time of his or her birth.
A person born outside Bangladesh will be considered a citizen by descent, if either of the parents was a citizen of Bangladesh at the time of his or her birth, the bill says.
According to the bill, citizenship by registration can be acquired by persons of Bangladeshi origin, who were or either of whose parents was born in Bangladesh and who are ordinarily resident in Bangladesh for five years, persons of Bangladeshi origin who are ordinarily residents in any country or outside Bangladesh, persons married to a citizen of Bangladesh and minor children either of whose parents is a Bangladesh citizen.
Citizenship by naturalization can be acquired by a foreigner who is ordinarily resident in Bangladesh for five consecutive years. The bill provides for acquiring citizenship by registration and naturalization and for dual citizenship.
The bill says Bangladesh citizens by birth that adopt the nationality of another country will not lose their citizenship, unless they renounce their claims to the citizenship before competent authorities. It, however, says any Bangladesh citizen will lose citizenship, if he or she adopts citizenship of a country with which Bangladesh has no diplomatic relation.
150 Missing After Ferry Capsizes
Fire brigade and coast guard divers yesterday mounted a major rescue and search operation after a ferry with an estimated 200 people on board capsized in southern Bangladesh, officials said. The accident happened near the farming town of Madaripur 270 km south of Dhaka. About 150 people were missing and feared drowned, witnesses said.
Initial reports said rescue workers had picked up the body of a woman from the water. Police said the vessel collided with another ferry and sank in Arial Kha River.
