Your
Advocate
This
week your advocate is M. Moazzam Husain of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
His professional interests include civil law, criminal law and constitutional
law.
Q:
I am a Bangladeshi passport holder at the moment and I would like to
know if there is any possibility to loose my Bangladeshi citizenship.
I have been to Bangladesh only twice in my life and I was born in Kushtia
but i left the country by the age of 1 year and visited the country
only twice. Therefore I don't want to be a Bangladeshi citizen. Is there
any possibility to cancel this citizenship. I have also changed my religion
from Muslim to Christianity
Md. Akther, on e-mail.
Your
Advocate: Though loosely worded the basic thrust of your query
seems to me that you are no more interested in continuing with your
Bangladesh citizenship. You have a Bangladeshi passport which you were
accredited with as a citizen. Bangladesh is your motherland. Long absence
from your domicile of origin right from childhood and most infrequent
visit seem to have dimmed the appeal of your motherland from your mind.
Now the relevance of Bangladesh citizenship is so much lost in your
life that you do not find any reason to retain it and in fact want to
relinquish.
The
general and common concern is how to acquire and retain citizenship
not to relinquish it. Therefore, an impressive body of law and jurisprudence
has developed intended to defend and not to defeat citizenship. Losing
citizenship is sometimes more difficult than acquisition of it. The
legal position is- even though a person leaves the country of his origin
with intention never to return his domicile of origin in that country
is never lost until he actually settles in another country with the
intention of making that country his permanent home. But the question
of relinquishment of citizenship is different. It is voluntary act based
on personal choice and equations. If any one wants to renounce his citizenship
he can do it, I think, in any manner he likes. The basic thing that
is to be kept in mind that the intention must be clear and be communicated
to the appropriate authority of the country of which he is a citizen.
Since
you are a Bangladeshi by birth and possessed of a passport issued to
you by the Govt. of your country I consider it a special credential
for you and memento of linkage with the land of your forefathers. Except
under painful necessity it would not be wise to cut off the linkage.
If you still consider the citizenship of Bangladesh redundant and not
of any use or deterrent to your life chances well, you can relinquish
it. There is no specific provisions of law laying down the procedure
for relinquishment of citizenship. You can do it by a written declaration
addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Home, Govt. of Bangladesh supported
by an affidavit setting out your clear intention to relinquish Bangladesh
citizenship. The declaration should be processed through the Bangladesh
Consulate or Mission functioning in the country you are residing. The
passport issued by the Bangladesh Govt. needs be surrendered. Apart
from the positive act of renunciation your citizenship may be lost in
many ways, for example, you owe allegiance to another country and be
disaffected and disloyal to the Constitution of Bangladesh or that the
Govt. considers it expedient for public interest to revoke your citizenship.
Corresponding
Law Desk
Please send your mails, queries, and opinions to: Law Desk,
The Daily Star 19 Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215;
telephone 8124944, 8124955, 8124966; fax 8125155, 8126154; email <dslawdesk@yahoo.co.uk>
