PUTRAJAYA, March 10 -- Malaysian mothers' overseas-born children born before the Federal Constitution's amended citizenship laws were passed last year are now entitled to citizenship by way of registration.

This follows a settlement between advocacy group Family Frontiers and the Malaysian government today ahead of a scheduled hearing over a constitutional challenge involving Malaysian citizenship that has gone on for at least five years.

The settlement, in the form of a consent order, was endorsed by a five-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat at the Federal Court earlier today.

Per the consent order, a child below the age of 18 born overseas to a Malaysian mother and foreign father before the Constitution ...