ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday turned down a petition of Minister of Water Resources Faisal Vawda seeking to stay disqualification proceedings against him for allegedly concealing his United States nationality when filing his nomination forms during the 2018 general elections.
During the proceedings, Justice Aamer Farooq took up Vawda’s petition seeking adjournment of the hearing on a petition seeking his disqualification as a member of the National Assembly (NA) for concealing his dual nationality.
Issuing notices to respondents nominated in his petition to submit their comments, the judge declined to issue a stay order. He recalled the court had already ruled to decide the case in view of the record submitted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Last month, Justice Farooq sought record from the ECP to proceed on the petition.
Despite several notices served on Vawda, he never responded to the petition. During Wednesday’s hearing, the court expressed displeasure over the minister for failing to submit his response.
“Why haven’t you submitted a reply when this court had given clear instructions [in this regard],” the judge censured the counsel. “Don’t play Chupan Chupai [hide and seek] with the court. This won’t benefit you,” he remarked, noting the counsel was also not appearing before the ECP.
THE PETITION:
The petition states that Vawda contested the elections from NA-249 (West-II) Karachi in July 2018 on a ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, he was a dual national at the time of filing of his nomination papers, concealing his US nationality by falsely declaring on oath before the ECP that “he didn’t have any foreign nationality”.
The petition, while citing documents of Vawda rescinding US nationality, pointed out that the minister was in fact a US citizen at the time of submitting his nomination papers on June 11, 2018, and even during the scrutiny of his nomination papers. The returning officer of his electoral constituency approved his papers on June 18.
“It was only after this approval that respondent No 1 [Vawda] applied for renunciation of his US nationality at the US Consulate, Karachi, on June 22,” the petition said, adding that the US Consulate issued the renunciation certificate to Vawda on June 25.
