However, Azalina, who chairs the committee, said she doubts the bill will “see the light of day” unless it is supported by parliamentarians.

“Members of Parliament, we reached a historical unanimous vote for a constitutional amendment to support the passing of the anti-party hopping law,” she said in a statement.

“If and when a bill is presented to us to make a minor amendment to the constitution to allow for both fathers and mothers to confer citizenship to their children, I trust that we can unanimously agree to do the same.

“Just as party hopping is unjust and unethical, so is leaving thousands of children stateless and in limbo.”

The High Court ruled last September that a constitutional provision for citizenship derived from Malaysian fathers should be extended to cover mothers or either parent.

However, the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Aug 5. In a majority ruling, the court held that the constitutional provision referred to the biological father and could not be extended to include the mother or parents.

It was up to Parliament, not the court, to rewrite the constitution, the judges said.

Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar then said many steps were required in the process to amend the Federal Constitution and provide automatic citizenship to overseas-born children of Malaysian women.

He said “it is not as easy as many claim – not just a matter of amending one word (father)”.

He reiterated to FMT that Putrajaya must wait until the Federal Court decides on an appeal filed by affected mothers whose suit to obtain citizenship for their children was rejected by the Court of Appeal.