Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik. — File photo

KARACHI: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik on Tuesday announced that he had resigned from his Senate membership, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives in Karachi, Malik said that he had tendered his resignation on Monday.

“I have decided to resign from the Senate and have conveyed my decision to the party leadership. I am willing to fulfil any other responsibility which my party will assign me,” he told reporters in Karachi.

Malik moreover said that he had renounced his British citizenship and that the dual nationality bill had not been proposed in order to facilitate him.

“I decided to shun my membership because people are attaching the proposed amendment in the dual nationality law with me,” Malik said. “So I have given up my membership and will now openly campaign for this bill for the sake of 1.2 million fellow overseas Pakistanis.”

He also showed documents to reporters pertaining to his having renounced British citizenship and said he would not acquire citizenship of a foreign country in the future.

The adviser admitted that he had established a company in the UK during exile, however, before stepping into practical politics, he had resigned from his business positions on directions from former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Malik said the government had always shown respect towards the judiciary and towards orders issued by the courts.

He further said that he also wanted to resign from the position of adviser but was stopped by the president from doing so.

Earlier in June, a Supreme Court bench hearing the dual nationality case had suspended Malik's Senate membership. As a consequence, he had also lost the coveted position of federal interior minister.

He was later appointed by President Asif Ali Zardari as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior.

Last month, the Supreme Court temporarily suspended MP Farahnaz Ispahani, the wife of Pakistan's sacked ambassador to Washington and an advisor to Zardari. She holds dual Pakistani-US nationality.