Pakistanis admit getting 'express citizenship' in Sabah

Five Pakistanis have confessed that they obtained Malaysian citizenship from agents in Sabah during their first visit to Malaysia, and some of them have voted five times in the elections. 

The latest case of ‘express citizenship’ was front-paged by Malay daily Sinar Harian today after its reporters visited one of the Pakistanis at his house in the Hutan Melintang state constituency in Perak.

They were detected by the Bagan Datoh PKR division during the process of examining the electoral roll.

It was found that four of the Pakistanis have been listed as voter in the electoral roll and all of them stay in the same house.

“When we were examining the voter list, we suspected the five names listed because they stay in the same house and are of Pakistani ethnicity,” Hutan Melintang PKR election director A Ganeson told the daily.

The party then visited the five at their house located in Taman Hutan Melintang and discovered that all of them have new MyKad, except one who holds the old identity card (IC).

"Five men aged between 30 and 40 claimed they obtained their ICs when they entered Malaysia for the first time.

All obtained ICs in Sabah

"They claimed that all of them obtained the ICs in Sabah through agents before moving to the peninsula," Ganeson said.

They also told him that some of them had voted in the elections as many as five times.

To verify Ganeson’s allegation, Sinar Harian went to the house together with PKR workers and met two of the five Pakistanis, while the others were not around.

After being told that the visitors were to conduct an election examination, the two cooperated and showed their ICs.

One of the two, Ali Hamsir, 54, also asked to have his old IC changed to a MyKad.

Asked how they obtained their ICs, Ali confirmed that all of them were brought to Sabah when they first entered the country, before they started working in the peninsula.

"I am married. My family is in Pakistan and every year I go back to visit them. To go there we need to apply for (Malaysian) passports because we are now Malaysians," he said.

PKR’s assemblyperson for Hutan Melintang, S Kesavan, told the daily that he is mulling over lodging a police report over the issue after the party finishes examining the electoral roll.

'EC has nothing to do with issuance of MyKad'

On the other hand, the Election Commission deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar clarified that his commission has nothing to do with the issuance of suspicious MyKad.

According to him, any voter whose name is in the electoral roll and has been verified by the EC as a voter has the right to vote.

"When the individual shows his or her MyKad and we check that his name exists (in the electoral roll), then he has the absolute right to vote. 

"The story before that (on the issuance of MyKad) is not an issue," he was quoted as saying.

Wan Ahmad also called on the public, especially political parties, not to "sensationalise such stories".

National Registration Department director-general Jariah Mohd Said declined to comment, saying that she needs to study the allegation first before making any statement.