The Islamabad High Court has issued a temporary order preventing the deportation of Bakhti Jan to Afghanistan until the Ministry of Interior decides on his application regarding the cancellation of his Pakistan Origin Card (POR), officials said.
During the hearing, the court directed the Ministry of Interior to decide on the POR cancellation request within one month. The petitioner’s lawyer informed the bench that the Peshawar High Court had ruled that NADRA is responsible for decisions related to POR cards.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani remarked that the Peshawar High Court ruling concerned cases of doubtful citizenship and clarified that civil court cannot grant citizenship; the decision to confer citizenship rests solely with the government. He noted that the petitioner is an Afghan refugee and must first cancel his POR card before applying for citizenship, as it is a mandatory step in the process.
The lawyer told the court that both the Ministry of Interior and NADRA had not yet made any decision on the petitioner’s requests.
The court adjourned the case to next month after ordering the Ministry of Interior to issue a decision on the POR card cancellation within one month, effectively granting temporary relief from deportation to the petitioner.
