A provision in the supreme law of Malaysia allowing only Malaysian fathers to obtain automatic citizenship for their overseas-born children is not discriminatory, contended Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin.

He made this assertion in his affidavit-in-reply for the government of Malaysia, which is the target of a suit seeking automatic citizenship for overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers and foreign fathers.

Through the legal action filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 18 last year, six Malaysian mothers and family rights group Family Frontiers sought a declaration that Malaysian women married to foreign spouses...