The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday reserved its decision on one of the petitions seeking the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Vawda.
The ECP, on the other hand, dismissed the other petition, which sought his disqualification as well, due to a lack of review of the matter.
The petitioner, Qadir Mandokhel, stated that this was the 23rd hearing in the case during the hearing. “For the past one and a half years, the election commission has been requesting answers from the senator, which he has not yet submitted,” he lamented.
ECP saves its decision in a matter of the Faisal Vawda disqualification case. The chief election commissioner (CEC) told the petitioner that he needed to finish his points and that the ECP was not in the mood to allow Vawda any more time to respond.
Mandokhel said that the returning officer’s (RO) decision on the PTI senator’s dual citizenship in 2018 was incorrect. “Rather than rejecting Vawda’s nomination papers, the RO rejected mine,” he explained.
When Balochistan Member Shah Muhammad Jatoi questioned him about why he had not appealed the RO’s judgement in court before visiting the ECP, he said that he had not. “Please explain why you did not appeal the RO’s decision to the tribunal first,” he asked, reminding the petitioner that he had told the commission that he was finished with his arguments at the previous hearing, but that he had renewed them now.
On the other side, PTI senator Barrister Moeed submitted Vawda’s birth certificate to the election commission.
Barrister Moeed, a lawyer for the PTI senator, began his closing arguments in the case. When the attorney told the ECP that he had handed the RO the documentation cancelling his client’s passport, the CEC wondered if cancelling the passport meant relinquishing the other country’s citizenship.
The attorney went on to say that Pakistanis with dual nationality were not given computerised national identity cards (CNICs), despite the fact that Vawda was issued a CNIC by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) on May 29, 2018, with the proof presented to the authorities.
The CEC responded that the NADRA’s authority to issue CNICs would have to be investigated further. The NADRA granted the CNIC only after the Intelligence Bureau approved it, according to a lawyer for a PTI senator.
Barrister Moeed contended that his client could not be disqualified since he was no longer a member of the National Assembly.
Faisal Vawda, speaking on the occasion, claimed he was unaware of the rules as a candidate for the MNA seat. “For no apparent reason, I’m being dragged into this situation.” He claimed, “Here I want to underline that the petitioner went straight to the election commission rather than knocking on the doors of a tribunal first.”
Later, speaking to the media, the PTI senator stated that he had submitted all proofs to the ECP and that he had never lied during the hearing.
