IHC reserves verdict on Vawda's plea challenging lifetime disqualification

• Vawda maintains in his plea that ECP lacks authority to disqualify him for life.
• Vawda's lawyer says ECP can only probe authenticity of affidavit.
• IHC tells lawyer to prove Vawda didn't hold dual nationality when he submitted affidavit. 

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved the verdict over PTI leader and former Senator Faisal Vawda's petition challenging his lifetime disqualification as a lawmaker.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had declared Vawda ineligible to hold the seat of a lawmaker and also took back the notification of his election as a Senator last Wednesday.

In today's hearing at the IHC, Vawda's counsel Advocate Waseem Sajjad appeared before a bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

The lawyer based his case on the argument that the ECP is not a court of law therefore it lacks authority to disqualify Vawda for life.

"The ECP cannot invoke Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and disqualify Vawda for life," he said.

At this, Justice Minallah remarked: "The affidavit had been submitted in light of a Supreme Court's order [requiring a certificate for the renunciation of foreign nationalities]. You are basing your arguments on technical grounds."

The chief justice asked Advocate Sajjad to point out the flaw in ECP's decision.

Justice Minallah went on to say that the apex court had issued the order itself and made the submission of the affidavit a must. It also warned of serious consequences if the statement in the affidavit was found to be false, he added.

"Would the SC have investigated the authenticity of the affidavit [itself]," the CJ asked, adding that ECP was supposed to carry out the inquiry and send it to the apex court with the report that these are the consequences for submitting a false affidavit.

The court told the lawyer to prove the purity of Vawda's intentions, based on the argument he didn't hold dual nationality at the time of the affidavit's submission.

"Did [Vawda] give up his US nationality before he submitted his nomination papers or not?" Justice Minallah inquired.

He also inquired about the date of renunciation of the US citizenship, and if the certificate proved it has been submitted.

At this, Advocate Sajjad maintained that the ECP can only probe the falsity or otherwise of the affidavit but the procedure after that has to be taken into account.

Responding to the query about the submission of the renunciation certificate, the lawyer said that the petitioner [of the plea seeking Vawda's disqualification] also didn't submit the certificate proving they surrendered their other nationalities.

"Lifetime disqualification is a death sentence for a politician," he added.

At this, Justice Minallah remarked that many politicians have got this "death penalty", and reserved the verdict on Vawda's plea.

The ECP, while announcing the verdict for the PTI leader's disqualification, had directed him to turn in all financial benefits and privileges he had been enjoying as a Senator within two months.

It stated that Vawda can still reach out to the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict for his disqualification.

What is the case?

Vawda had won the 2018 general election from Karachi's NA-249 constituency.

In January 2020, an investigative report published in The News had revealed that Vawda may have committed perjury by falsely declaring in an oath to the ECP that he did not hold any, foreign nationality.

According to The News, Vawda was in possession of a United States passport at the time he filed his nomination papers on June 11, 2018. The minister remained an American national even at the time the scrutiny of his nomination papers were completed.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan in a past judgement has categorically ruled that candidates who hold dual nationality are supposed to submit a renunciation certificate of the foreign nationality along with their nomination papers.

The same judgement has previously led to the disqualification of various lawmakers, notable among whom Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senators Saadia Abbasi and Haroon Akhtar.

Therefore, PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Asif Mehmood and Mian Faisal, had sought Vawda's disqualification maintaining that he had concealed his US nationality while submitting his nomination papers to the returning officer for the National Assembly seat, and refrained from stating the date of his renunciation of the US nationality despite being asked by the ECP several times.

During the trial, Vawda sought received multiple extensions and received as many warnings for the submission of his arguments to counter the prosecution's stance.