Red Signal: Faisal Vawda on the Brink of Disqualification
Sindh High Court rebuffed his petition to stop the Election Commission of Pakistan from hearing applications against his ineligibility.
Federal Minister for Water Resource Faisal Vawda is on the verge of ineligibility as the Sindh High Court (SHC) rebuffed his petition to stop the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from hearing applications against his disqualification.
Earlier, Faisal Vawda had narrowly escaped disqualification after winning in the Senate election, he had resigned as the Member National Assembly (MNA). Therefore, Islamabad High Court (IHC) had disposed of ineligibility case against Vawda and referred the matter to ECP as he was no longer an elected representative.
In the detailed judgment, IHC had declared that in prima facie, Vawda was a US Citizen at the time of filing his nomination papers in general elections 2018 and was ineligible to contest polls for the same reason as restricted by the constitution.
Three complaints pertaining to disqualification over submission of a false affidavit regarding dual nationality in the general elections 2018 are underway against Vawda in the ECP.
During the hearing in SHC, Faisal Vawda pleaded the court to bar ECP from hearing his disqualification case as the commission was unauthorized to do so.
The petitioner’s lawyer cited IHC’s decision according to which only a new ECP tribunal could adjudicate on Vawda’s disqualification.
However, SHC maintained how it could stop the commission from hearing cases until it stayed itself. The high court served notices to the ECP, federal government, and other respondents to submit comments by March 16.
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Background
Faisal Vawda had filed his nomination papers in general elections 2018 when he was still a US national. However, he later gave up his foreign citizenship after his nomination papers were approved by ECP.
Notably, PML-N’s leaders including Sadia Abbasi and Haroon Akhtar were disqualified by the Supreme Court (SC) in October 2018 as they possessed foreign citizenships at the time of submitting candidatures.
Vawda had succeeded in general election from Karachi’s NA-249 constituency and he is on the verge of disqualification after getting rebuffed by SHC.
