ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) termed Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda's attitude 'non-serious' in his disqualification case for allegedly concealing US nationality at the time of filing nomination papers to contest elections 2018.
A single bench of Justice Aamer Farooq on Thursday heard Barrister Jahangir Jadoon's petition against the federal minister.
The court granted another chance to Faisal Vawda to submit a reply regarding the matter.
During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel informed that the minister has not submitted his reply yet, despite 16 hearings of the case.
Upon that, Justice Farooq suggested to send the copy of the notice to the federal cabinet. The IHC judge remarked that he did not understand how to get a reply in this case.
The bench further said if Faisal Vawda does not want to give an answer, let us know, then the court would decide the case on the record of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Advocate Haroon Duggal, lawyer of Vawda, requested the court to give him some time. At this, the court gave him another chance to file his reply and adjourned the hearing till February 8.
In his petition, Mian Faisal Advocate 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 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 the US nationality, pointed out that the minister was a US citizen at the time of submission of 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 25.
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 the 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 has 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, 2021
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