ISLAMABAD - In its first major initiative after reconstitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has slapped a ban on the politicians having dual nationalities from contesting the next parliamentary elections. The heatedly discussed initiative to proceed against the incumbent dual nationality holder parliamentarians, however, appears to have been laid to rest. The development surfaced on Monday following a high-level meeting of the ECP officials chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Hamid Ali Mirza and attended by ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan and four newly appointed ECP members, Justice (r) Fazalur Rehman, Justice (r) Shahzad Akbar Khan, Justice (r) Riaz Kayani and Justice (r) Muhammad Roshan Essani. The ECP also recommended the government for legislation in order to form a comprehensive mechanism to track down the politicians with dual nationalities and to include a related column, in order to determine the nationality status of any politician, in the electoral forms for next parliamentary polls. The imposition of ban on dual nationality holder politicians was one of the major issues that had landed in limbo after the government had allegedly used delaying tactics regarding the reconstitution of the ECP in the light of 18th amendment. Other pending issues affected due to the delay in the ECP reconstitution included degrees verification cases, the proceedings against the PML-Q Forward Bloc in Punjab and some references moved against the parliamentarians from across Pakistan against their rival candidates. Sources are sceptical regarding the materialisation of the ECPs ban imposition to keep the dual nationality holder politicians away from contesting the general polls. While the ban would be effective from the next general elections, only if the government bothered to introduce a related bill in the parliament for establishing mechanism to hunt down the dual nationality holder politicians, there is no existing framework to ascertain the number of those members of Senate, National, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan assemblies who have a foreign nationality. Article 63 (1)(c) of the 1973 Constitution clearly states, If anybody ceases to be the citizen of Pakistan or acquires nationality of any other state, he ceases to be the member of Majlis-e-Shura or Parliament of Pakistan. On February 22, 2011, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan, quoting the same article and following a detailed meeting with the representatives of political parties the same day, had announced in a media briefing that the ECP had decided to suspend the memberships of dual nationality holder parliamentarians in the light of article 63 of Pakistans constitution. The same meeting between the ECP officials and political parties had reached mutual consensus for proceeding against the incumbent foreign nationality holder parliamentarians by means of disqualifying them. The particular meeting, the secretary had informed then, had also agreed upon the proposal to include a column in the electoral nomination papers, in order to determine whether a parliamentarian or a politician had dual nationality. The ECP secretary had said that the NA had already taken up the dual nationality issue while ECP was collecting data about the dual nationality holder MPs whose details would be sent to Law Ministry, in order to get them disqualified. With Mondays development, the proposed actions against incumbent dual nationality holder parliamentarians are evidently and entirely overlooked and subsided. Meanwhile, the ECPs Monday meeting expressed 'concern over the slow pace of MPs degree verifications and legal actions initiated accordingly. The meeting decided to 'expedite the process. However, the chief election commissioner refused to hear references against Senator Haji Adeel and Senator Zahid Khan regarding their fake degrees. He said the reference filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider should be forwarded by the Senate Chairman. The election commission dismissed the reference. A resolution was passed in the meeting which stated that a reference against a member can only be sent by Senate Chairman or the Speaker of the National Assembly. Two new parties Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Nazriati (JUI-N) and Kawaran-e-Millat were allotted electoral symbols while the memberships of six parties were deferred till ECPs next meeting. The ECP rejected petitions against Haji Adeel and Zahid Khan for their disqualification with the instructions that these petitions be routed through the parliament.