PESHAWAR: A three-member bench of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headed by Chief Election Commissioner has disqualified Senator Faisal Vawda in dual nationality case under Article 62F.
Following the judgement, Faisal Vawda will no longer be a senator. The ECP has ordered Vawda to return all the benefits he had availed as Member National Assembly, including salaries, within two months. In March 2021, he had resigned as Member National Assembly (MNA) and was elected as member Senate.
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In his brief response to the ECP judgment, Vawda wrote on his Facebook account, “we will appeal to the Supreme Court against today’s decision of the Election Commission.” During the hearing of the case, Vawda has submitted his birth certificate to the commission which says that he was born in California and is a US citizen by birth. He has told the bench that he had canceled his foreign passport before submitting his nomination papers for 2018 elections.
Petitioner Qadir Mandokhel, a leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had said in his arguments that the commission had been seeking reply for a year and a half but Vawda did not take the ECP order series. Mandokhel said, he had concealed his US citizenship while submitting his nomination papers to the Returning Officer as a candidate for national assembly. “Faisal Wawda submitted a false affidavit while submitting papers for the 2018 general elections, concealed the source of income and was also tax defaulter.”
The petitions were filed on January 21, 2020. At several hearings, the ECP asked Faisal Vawda to provide date for renunciation of dual citizenship but got no response. He has told the Election Commission that when he appeared before the Returning Officer before the general election, he had submitted a canceled US passport on which he was allowed to contest election.
When the Election Commission asked the PTI leader for a certificate of renunciation of US citizenship, he said that he did not know much about the legal paperwork of Pakistan or the United States. He had requested the Election Commission to personally contact the US Embassy for the certificate but the ECP had refused, saying it was not its prerogative.
The ECP had reserved its verdict in the case on December 23.