IHC reserves judgment on Vawda's petition against lifelong disqualification

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday has reserved its judgment on the maintainability of a petition filed by former minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda against his lifelong disqualification from the parliament by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The admissibility of the application was heard by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah earlier today.

During the hearing, Vawda’s lawyer Wasim Sajid informed the court that the PTI leader was disqualified under section 62(1)(f) of the Constitution. "This is a political death sentence," Sajid said.

The lawyer maintained that the ECP "has no power" to issue a disqualification order as it is not a court of law.

He stated that the Supreme Court, in its judgment, had said that the commission could not give a decision of disqualification. He also informed the court that the ECP had de-notified Vawda as a senator after disqualifying him.

In response, Justice Minallah stated that if that is the case then "the death sentence" has been handed over to many politicians.

“The petitioner must prove his case,” he added, warning him that the SC had ruled that submitting a false affidavit was considered contempt of court.

Read: Pandora Papers probe should start with me, says Faisal Vawda

Justice Minallah also inquired if the former minister had given the certificate of renunciation of his American citizenship. "What is the date of the certificate?" he questioned.

The IHC CJ maintained that the petitioner should also prove his pure intentions that when the affidavit was filed, he did not hold dual citizenship.

"That the affidavit was filed in the light of the Supreme Court’s order and the SC issued an order and made the affidavit part of it,” he added.

Subsequently, the court reserved the judgment on the admissibility of the petition.

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Last week, the ECP had disqualified PTI leader Faisal Vawda for life from parliament for submitting a false affidavit regarding his dual citizenship.

According to the decision announced on February 9, Vawda, who resigned from his MNA seat to become a senator in elections last year, was also told to return all the perks and privileges he received as a member of the National Assembly.

The PTI senator was disqualified by the election watchdog for violating Article 62(1)(f) which pertains to being "sadiq (truthful) and "amin" (honest). The article provision sets the precondition for a member of parliament and is the same provision under which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by Supreme Court on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers case.