Review of selected provisions of the Foreigners Act 1946 The above sections revealed some of the gaps in the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951 that prevent individuals and groups from acquiring citizenship that they should be legally entitled to under the existing legal framework. The inability to acquire citizenship, due to various barriers, transforms many individuals and possible citizens into foreigners, thereby subjecting them to provisions of the Foreigners Act 1946 and depriving them of various constitutional safeguards as citizens. As the absence of citizenship is what defines a person in Pakistan as a foreigner, the interplay between these two legislations and the conceptual and practical distance between being a citizen and a foreigner is crucial to understand the cumulative impact of key provisions of the law on specific marginalized groups, such as refugees born in Pakistan—a large number of them still children. The broader context is also particularly relevant to assess protection of various fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution to both citizens and foreigners. It is pertinent to emphasize that the Constitution of Pakistan protects several fundamental rights of foreigners and non-citizens (persons) that constitute both its domestic and international legal obligations. Power of the government The Foreigners Act grants the Federal Government in Pakistan unlimited and unrestricted "power to make orders" concerning a foreigner's presence in the country (S. 3). The government can prescribe and specify the conditions under which a foreigner can stay in the country; a wide range of restrictions, prohibitions, and regulations can be imposed. The Sindh High Court stated that Section 3 of the Foreigners Act grants authority to the Central Government to issue orders that can apply broadly to all foreigners, specific individuals, or defined groups of foreigners. These orders can regulate or restrict their entry into or departure from certain 13