Malik quits Senate

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s de facto interior minister Rehman Malik, a close aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, resigned from parliament Tuesday amid a controversy about his dual nationality.

The Supreme Court suspended Malik’s membership of the upper house of parliament, the senate, June 4 for allegedly running for office while still holding British citizenship.

The court ruling disqualified Malik from his post as interior minister, but he stayed on as the prime minister’s “advisor” on interior affairs.

“I have decided to resign from the Senate and have conveyed my decision to the party leadership. I am willing to fulfil any other responsibility which my party will assign me,” he told reporters in Karachi.

Minutes before Malik’s announcement, a bill was introduced in parliament to do away with the constitutional clause which bars MPs from acquiring foreign nationality. “I decided to shun my membership because people are attaching the proposed amendment in the dual nationality law with me,” Malik said. “So I have given up my membership and will now openly campaign for this bill for the sake of 1.2 million fellow overseas Pakistanis.” — AFP