The Supreme Court (SC) was apprised of the status of over 1,100 lawmakers’ nationality by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday.
The list sent to the SC Registrar includes the names of those who did not submit declarations denying the possession of dual nationality by the November 30 deadline.
The move, according to a statement issued by the commission, was in accordance with the apex court’s directives in a September 20 judgment.
The commission has sent the lists, “Containing the names of senators, members National Assembly and Members provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, who have submitted their declaration form, along with detail of those parliamentarians and members of provincial assemblies who have failed to submit the requisite declaration till 30th November, 2012.”
In September, an apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had disqualified 11 members of Parliament and provincial assemblies and had directed the ECP to obtain fresh declarations on oath from legislators and to examine their cases individually.
An ECP official told The Express Tribune that 11 seats in national and provincial assemblies are currently vacant and that the commission had sent a list of 1,147 members.
He added that the court will issue directions to the ECP for further action against those who have not submitted their declarations. The court may also provide these members with an opportunity to explain their point of view or the reasons due to which they could not file their declarations, he added.
The official said that if there was any complaint against a member, the commission would investigate the case and probe whether his or her claim of not possessing dual nationality was genuine.
Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza accepted the resignation of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Sabeen Rizvi. The resignation was accepted with effect from November 29.
On Sunday, the speaker had accepted the resignations of four Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNAs.
The ECP had set a November 30 deadline for lawmakers to submit their declarations and had warned that in case of non-compliance, they would be considered dual nationals.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ