ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a plea by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict regarding his lifetime disqualification from parliament.
A three member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial heard the petition. The top judge remarked that the court cannot suspend the verdict as the plaintiff had submitted a fake affidavit.
The bench issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Attorney General of Pakistan, and MNA Abdul Qadir Mandokhel to file their response to the petition.
Vawda’s cousel Advocate Wasim Sajjad requested the top court to suspended the ECP verdict until the petition is decided and restrain the election monitoring body from holding by-election on the Senate seat.
During the hearing, the court observed that the petitioner’s objection to the ECP’s jurisdiction to disqualify a lawmaker for lifetime is important. The court adjourned the case for an indefinite period.
Earlier, Islamabad High Court (IHC) had also rejected PTI leader Faisal Vawda’s plea against his disqualification. Vawda later moved the apex court for disqualifying him for concealing his US nationality while contesting the 2018 general elections.
The PTI leader said the IHC dismissed his petition against his disqualification in haste and pleaded with the top court to set aside the ECP decision of disqualifying him for a lifetime.
An ECP bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Faisal Sultan Raja, had disqualified Vawda for concealing his dual nationality with a direction to return the salary and other perks during his tenure.
The commission had also declared the vote which Vawda had cast in the Senate elections on March 10 as invalid. It stated that Vawda had submitted a false affidavit with his nomination papers.
