ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday reserved its verdict on a disqualification petition filed against PTI Senator Faisal Vawda for concealing dual nationality.
Qadir Khan Mandokhel, Mian Faisal and Mian Asif Mehmood subsequently filed petitions in the ECP on January 21, 2020, seeking Vawda’s disqualification. A citizen, Dost Ali, also filed a similar petition in 2020 challenging Vawda’s election as a member of the National Assembly.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja headed the three-member bench, comprising Shah Muhammad Jatoi and Nisar Ahmed Durrani that heard the case.
Barrister Moeed, counsel for Vawda, submitted the senator’s birth certificate in the ECP. He said Vawda was born in California and was an American citizen by birth. “Faisal Wawda had his foreign passport cancelled before submitting his nomination papers,” he said.
During the hearing, the Chief Election Commissioner, while talking to PPP leader Qadir Khan Mandokhel, said: “You had said that the final arguments had been presented. Do you want to present more arguments or documents?”
Mandokhel said today was the 23rd hearing in the ECP which had been seeking answers for the last 1.5 years but had not received any. “The RO gave a wrong order on dual citizenship in the 2018 general election. The RO rejected my nomination papers instead of rejecting Faisal Vawda’s,” Mandokhel added.
The petitioner said that Vawda has declared property in a foreign country and that the commission should inquire from the US Consulate about his citizenship.
“At the last hearing, you said that the arguments were complete. However, today you are talking about something new. The consulate is not answerable to the Election Commission, and the Commission cannot write to them,” the CEC responded.
‘Vawda never gave up Pakistani citizenship’
The petitioners wrapped up their arguments against Vawda as Barrister Moeed started his final arguments. He argued that Vawda had obtained a normal identity card from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) prior to the general elections 2018.
“His Nicop (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) being cancelled and Nadra’s confirmation prove that he was not an American citizen,” he said.
The CEC questioned whether Nadra was authorised to verify whether anyone was a foreign citizen or not. The lawyer responded that Nadra only issued identity cards after verification with the Intelligence Bureau.
“If Faisal Vawda is no longer even an MNA, then how can there be disqualification on this petition?” his counsel argued. “Qadir Mandokhel deliberately approached the wrong forum to conduct a media trial,” Barrister Moeed said.
The ECP dismissed Mehmood’s petition on grounds of non-compliance and reserved its verdict on the other three petitions.
Dual nationality case
Following the report about Vawda’s dual nationality, a petition was submitted to the Islamabad High Court seeking his disqualification. The court had directed the PTI leader to submit a reply.
In March 2021, Vawda resigned as an MNA on being elected as a senator and his lawyer contended that a dual nationality case against the lawmaker was “not valid now”.
However, the IHC held him responsible for submitting a false affidavit regarding his nationality and directed the ECP to proceed against him under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution that deals with disqualification.
In November, the senator filed a petition with the IHC seeking to stay proceedings of the ECP in his disqualification case but the court rejected the appeal.
