The Islamabad High Court Wednesday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and others on a petition seeking disqualification of Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda for allegedly concealing his US nationality.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition filed by a lawyer Mian Faisal Advocate and issued notices to the ECP, Faisal Vawda and others.
During the hearing, Justice Aamer asked the petitioner about the last date for the candidates to submit their nomination forms for the election in 2018. The petitioner's lawyer Barrister Jahangir Jadoon told the court that it was June 11, 2018.
The lawyer also presented the oath statement that the minister had submitted to the ECP when he filed his nomination papers. The judge questioned the petitioner whether the oath statement submitted by Vawda and presented in court was authentic. To this, the counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the minister had submitted a fake oath-taking since he was holding dual nationality at the time of filing his nomination papers.
After issuing the notices, the IHC bench deferred hearing in this matter till February 24 for further proceedings.
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 18.
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 Supreme Court] that if anybody files a false affidavit, it will be considered that 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".
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