ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday suspended Farahnaz Ispahani’s National Assembly membership over her dual Pakistani and American nationality, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, issued the ruling while hearing the dual nationality case. The petition was filed by Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi seeking a declaration against parliamentarians and members of different provincial assemblies holding dual nationality.

The court ruled that Ispahani could not partake in the proceedings of the National Assembly. It further said that Ispahani also could not participate in any of the committees of the National Assembly.

The court also said that parliamentary members were the people’s representatives, and Ispahani had confessed to being a US national.

Moreover, Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s counsel requested the court for an additional two-day time period to produce documents proving the renouncement of his UK nationality.

The hearing was adjourned until May 30.

The court, in an earlier hearing on May 8, had issued notices to Ispahani and Malik to appear before the court and deny allegations pertaining to their dual nationalities.

Malik had later claimed that he had renounced his UK citizenship, though he was asked to prove so with documents backing his claim. His counsel, however, failed to produce those documents during today’s hearing, eventually asking for an extension to file them.

Ms Ispahani is the wife of former Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, who is currently being probed by a judicial commission for his role in allegedly writing a controversial memo to US military chief Mike Mullen.