The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday relaxed rules for electoral candidates, waiving the condition to file an attestation on dual citizenship. The meeting held with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) former Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim in the chair for reviewing cases of declarations on dual nationality decided that declarations may be attested by an Oath Commissioner or any Officer of the Election Commission in Islamabad or the commission's provincial headquarters.
The ECP decided that even if the aforesaid officer or the Oath Commissioner was not available, members might submit declarations along with a copy of his or her CNIC or Assembly Card for verification of their signatures. According to data obtained by this correspondent, of 1,163 members of Parliament and all Provincial Assemblies, 1,090 have so far submitted their affidavits.
Affidavits of 73 members are yet to be received. Furthermore, among the received affidavits, some affidavits were not duly attested or lacked signatures. Therefore, all members who have filed unattested declarations might also visit the offices of the Provincial Election Commissioner concerned or the ECP Secretariat in Islamabad for verification of their signatures. Keeping in view the requests made by some of the Parliamentarians, especially those who performed Hajj and were yet to return to Pakistan, the ECP has extended the date for submission of declarations till November 30.
Members of the National Assembly and Senate are required to submit their declarations to the ECP while members of provincial assemblies are required to submit their declarations with the Office of Provincial Election Commissioner concerned by November 30 this year. Furthermore, as per the decision of the ECP, letters were sent to all members who had not submitted their affidavits. No further extension would be granted in this regard. Moreover, failure to submit the declarations by the said date would entail legal and constitutional consequences.