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MOFA accused of dragging its feet in Pakistani spouse's naturalization case

A Taiwanese woman married to a Pakistani man appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday to accept her husband's application for naturalization, after the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs rejected it.

A ministry official said it was reasonable to be very careful when reviewing applications from a country that is "friendly to terrorists," but it would review the case.

Tso Shih-yung (左詩詠) made the plea for her husband Ishsar Khan at a press conference at the legislature yesterday called by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕).

Tso and Khan were married three years ago and have a three-year-old child, but Khan could not complete his application for naturalization because Taiwan does not have diplomatic ties with Pakistan -- the reason cited by the bureau, Lu said.

The lawmaker said that the law gives all foreign spouses the right to apply to become a citizen, including Chinese nationals.

Tso said she and Khan were married in Taiwan and have a marriage certificate from a local court, but bureau officials asked them to go to Pakistan to register their marriage there and have the marriage certified by the representative office of Pakistan in Saudi Arabia.

"We've spent about NT$200,000 on notarized documents. However, the ministry has yet to respond to our application even though we submitted all the required documents in June. The ministry's regulations do not make any sense," Tso said.

Chen Shang-yu (陳尚友), a bureau official, said that Pakistan has not been friendly to Taiwan although it has treated terrorists in a friendly manner, adding that all countries apply strict standards to Pakistanis' applications.

"It is reasonable for Taiwan to be extremely careful on the applications from such countries. We were not intentionally picky about Khan's case," Chen said. "But we will review this case ... and ask our representative office in Saudi Arabia to help out."
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