Staff Correspondent

Shamim Haque, a candidate for Awami League nominated in Faridpur-3 (Sadar) constituency, is a citizen of the Netherlands. Complaining that the independent candidate AK Azad has applied to the Election Commission to cancel the candidature.

Lawyer for him on Friday. Golam Kibria filed an appeal. At that time, he told reporters, "Awami League candidate Shamim Haque is a citizen of the Netherlands."

Independent candidates at the time of selection of nominations AK. Azad made a written complaint with information about this, but the returning officer declared Shamim Haque's nomination paper valid without canceling it. An appeal has been filed today against this order of the returning officer.

He further said, 'Shamim Haque's previous passport number of Netherlands is BESHC8751, date of birth is written on 21 October 1960. Shamim Haque recently submitted an application at the Faridpur passport office to issue his Bangladeshi passport. He has ticked the dual citizenship box in column no.25 of that application. In column 26, if the citizen of another country is asked to mention the name of that country, there he mentioned the Netherlands. Column No. 27 mentions his Netherlands passport number BY60F0J74.'

Presenting a photocopy of his Netherlands passport as evidence to the Returning Officer as an argument for canceling Shamim Haque's nomination, lawyer Ghulam Kibria said, "According to Article 66(2) of the Constitution and Article 12(1) (6) of the Representation of the People Order, 1972, Shamim Haque Being a foreign citizen, he cannot be a candidate for the post of Member of Parliament, he is an ineligible candidate.

Also, since he concealed the matter in the affidavit given under Section 12(2)(a) of the Representation of the People Order, his declaration will be treated as false. For that reason, his nomination should be cancelled.

Article 66(2)(c) of the Constitution states, 'No person shall be eligible to be elected and remain a Member of Parliament if he has acquired the citizenship of a foreign State or has declared or professed allegiance to a foreign State.' A similar provision has been inserted in Article 12(1)(6) of the Representation of the People Order.

Incidentally, due to dual citizenship, the district returning officer has canceled the nomination papers of Awami League nominated candidate of Barisal-4 constituency Shammi Ahmed. But the returning officer of Faridpur gave the opposite order. Aggrieved by his order, an appeal has been filed.