KATHMANDU: The Constituent Assembly (CA) sub-committee under the Committee on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles today finalised the preliminary draft on citizenship with the provision of providing citizenship certificate from the central government.

A person eligible to get citizenship certificate will get a single citizenship with the identity of his/her province or state from the federal (central) government as per the proposed draft. During the deliberation, only a few CA members had demanded dual citizenship each from federal as well as provincial government.

Non-Resident Nepalis (NRNs) will get identity card with economic, social and cultural rights, informed Toyanath Bhattarai, secretary of the committee.

Only the person, who has acquired citizenship by descent, will be eligible for the election or appointment to the posts of President, Vice President and chiefs of federal and provincial legislature, executive, judiciary, constitutional bodies and security bodies.

The federal government can probe into the complaints against fake citizenship certificates.

According to the preliminary draft, the government may grant honourary citizenship to international celebrities.

Likewise, a Nepali citizen, who gave up Nepali citizenship and acquired foreign one once and wanted to re-acquire Nepali citizenship, will have to give up the foreign citizenship and live in Nepal for five years.

The descent of father or mother and gender of the concerned person must be specified in his/her citizenship certificate.

Every child who is found within the territory of Nepal and the whereabouts of whose parents are not known shall, until the father or mother of the child is traced, be "the citizen of Nepal by descent" after they turn 16 years old.

A Nepali citizen qualified for citizenship from another country will have to choose one of the countries within two years after being qualified.

Likewise, a foreigner, married to a Nepali, living in Nepal for 15 years will be eligible for naturalised citizenship after giving up foreign citizenship.

The sub-committee will finalise the issues of fundamental rights and directive principles and state policy within a couple of days and submit preliminary report to the full committee. The sub-committee has proposed around 30 fundamental rights,a few of them are yet to be finalised, Bhattarai informed.