Vawda challenges lifelong disqualification in SC

Electoral watchdog does not have the power to disqualify for life, states appeal

ISLAMABAD:

Former PTI senator Faisal Vawda on Friday challenged the lifelong disqualification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the subsequent ruling by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the Supreme Court. 

The PTI leader filed an appeal in the apex court. 

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

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.

Vawda, subsequently approached the IHC, however, his plea seeking the revocation of his lifetime disqualification was dismissed by the court. 

The IHC observed that the ECP disqualified Vawda after concluding that he had submitted a false affidavit regarding his nationality to the commission at the time of the filing of his nomination papers to contest elections from Karachi's NA-249 constituency in 2018.

Read Vawda to challenge disqualification in IHC

In the appeal submitted in the SC today, the former senator has prayed upon the apex court to annul the earlier ECP decision and restore his senatorship.

The appeal states that the electoral watchdog did not have the power to disqualify him for life and that the ECP was not a competent court of law.

Faisal Vawda's appeal was filed by his Advocate Wasim Sajjad.

The opposition had cheered the ECP's decision as a major defeat for the government. However, the government ministers maintained they are sanguine about the prospects of a legal breather for Vawda.