Kathmandu: The Federal Parliament‘s State Affairs Committee (SAC)  has endorsed the citizenship bill containing provision of a seven-year waiting period for a foreign woman married to a Nepali citizen to acquire naturalised citizenship.

The Nepal Communist party (NCP) Secretariat on Saturday decided to make foreign women married to Nepali men eligible for naturalised citizenship on the basis of matrimonial relations only after seven years. The same was endorsed by the parliamentary committee on Sunday.

The meeting that took place at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, decided that the person willing to get naturalised citizenship of Nepal must have gone through all the formalities to give up her original citizenship, NCP (NCP) Spokesperson and Secretariat member Narayan Kaji Shrestha had said on Saturday.

He said his party took the decision on the seven-year waiting period because the party believed that a waiting period was necessary for foreign women married to Nepali men to understand the country better and increase their sense of loyalty to the nation. Shrestha said foreign women married to Nepali men would be given identity cards which would allow them to enjoy all other rights, including economic, social and cultural rights for the seven-year period that they were not eligible for naturalisation.
 
The secretariat decision came at the time when the State Affairs Committee (SAC) had not been able to forge consensus on the citizenship amendment bill despite holding discussions for long.

However, main opposition Nepali Congress and Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, are in favour of allowing the existing provision that allows foreign women married to Nepali men obtain naturalised citizenship the moment they inform the concerned government offices that they have renounced their original citizenship.

Co-Chair of Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal Upendra Yadav told THT’s Ram Kumar Kamat on Saturday that his party would not accept the NCP decision barring foreign women married to Nepali men from obtaining natualised citizenship for seven years. He said the existing provision related to matrimonial naturalisation allowing foreign women married to Nepali men to obtain naturalised citizenship the moment they informed the concerned authorities that they had renounced their original citizenship should be retained.

“When a foreign woman marries a Nepali man, she sacrifices everything — her maternal family and lineage and she even changes her clan. Why should a woman who sacrifices everything to become part of a Nepali family be deprived of Nepali citizenship for seven years? “Yadav wondered. He said his party would discuss the issue with the NC and fight for their cause in the House.

NC’s whip in the House of Representatives Pushpa Bhusal, who is also a senior advocate, told THT that the NCP’s decision to make foreign women married to Nepali men wait for seven years to obtain naturalised citizenship was a violation of the spirit of the constitution. She said issues of restriction for naturalised citizens were debated in both the first and second Constituent Assemblies and they were settled when the constitution was promulgated.

Women who have obtained naturalised citizenship on the basis of matrimonial relations were qualified under the new constitution to hold posts other than those listed in Article 289 if they had resided in Nepal for at least five years. Hence, the NCP’s decision was against this provision of the constitution, Bhusal argued.
 
Article 289 bars citizens by birth and naturalised citizens from holding some key constitutional posts including the post of prime minister, president and speaker. “The citizenship issue is linked to nationality and therefore, there must be national consensus on the issue. The ruling party should not try to pass the bill on the basis of majority in the Parliament,” she added.

She said the spirit of the constitution was to have a federal law related to the procedure, but the ruling party was not following the spirit of the constitution.

https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/state-affairs-committee-endorses-citizenship-bill/