ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit record of Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda’s nomination papers to contest 2018 elections.
A single bench of Aamer Farooq heard the petition of Mian Faisal Advocate, wherein, he has sought disqualification of Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda for allegedly concealing his US nationality at the time of filing his nomination papers to contest the last general elections.
He has cited the federal minister, the ECP and others as respondents.
During the hearing, Jahangir Jadoon advocate, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, said Vawda was making a mockery of the court proceedings as he has not been following the court orders, and should be disqualified for hiding his dual citizenship.
Justice Aamer said to the lawyer not to make the matter political.
He added that this is a legal case, and they know how to handle it.
Later, the court deferred the proceedings till November 4th, after accepting the plea of Vawda’s lawyer seeking time for submission of his reply in this matter.
In his petition, Faisal stated that Vawda contested the elections from NA-249 (West-II) Karachi in July 2018 on a ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
However, he was a dual national at the time of filing of his nomination papers, concealing his American nationality by falsely declaring on oath before the ECP that “he did not have any foreign nationality”.
The petition, while mentioning documents of Vawda rescinding US nationality, pointed out that the minister was a US citizen at the time of submitting his nomination papers on June 11, 2018, and even during the scrutiny of his nomination papers, while the returning officer of his electoral constituency approved his papers on June 18th.
The petition maintained, “It was only after this approval that respondent No 1 [Vawda] applied for renunciation of his US nationality at the US Consulate, Karachi, on June 22.”
It added that the US Consulate issued the renunciation certificate to Vawda on June 25th.
Moreover, the petition stated that Vawda had on June 11, 2018, also submitted an affidavit claiming that he was not a dual national, whereas till that time, his foreign nationality was intact.
It mentioned, “It is held in the judgment [of Supreme Court] that if anybody files a false affidavit, it will be considered he is filing the affidavit before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”
It continued that the Supreme Court had in one of its judgments categorically directed that candidates who previously held dual nationalities should have renunciation certificates at the time of filing of nomination papers.
The petitioner maintained that Vawda “contested the election of National Assembly while submitting false declaration and hiding his dual nationality” which makes him “liable to be disqualified under the Constitution and law of the land”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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