ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday dismissed former federal minister Faisal Vawda’s plea seeking the revocation of his lifetime disqualification.
An Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) bench on February 9 had announced the verdict in the PTI leader’s dual nationality case, disqualifying him as a lawmaker.
“…the Court has not been able to persuade itself that the impugned order, dated 09-02-2022, suffers from any legal infirmity requiring interference. The petition is, therefore, accordingly dismissed,” IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah — who heard the case — said in the judgement.
Justice Minallah said the date for being qualified to be a member of the Parliament was the date when the nomination papers were filed.
“…the process of relinquishment of the foreign nationality should have been completed and concluded before submission of the nomination papers,” the judge noted.
The IHC noted that it is, indeed, a settled law that when a citizen of Pakistan has acquired the citizenship of a foreign state, the latter shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen or being a member of the Parliament until and unless such legal status — being a citizen of a foreign state — was obliterated or extinguished.
The judge said the petitioner had contested from NA 249, Karachi, in the general elections held in 2018. His notification as a member of the National Assembly was challenged before various forums, including the IHC.
In the petitions against Vawda, it was alleged that he had filed a false affidavit to get elected as an MNA.
However, “for reasons best known to him”, the former federal minister’s conduct before the IHC remained “evasive” and he kept delaying the proceedings on one pretext or the other.
After delaying the proceedings for more than one year, he informed the court that he had resigned as a member of the National Assembly — leading to the dismissal of the petition against him.
Soon after his resignation, Vawda was elected as a member of the Senate of Pakistan.
“It appears from the record that instead of establishing his bonafides by producing a certificate of renunciation of citizenship, proceedings were delayed by the petitioner before the Commission,” the IHC said.
Justice Minallah noted it was not “pleasant” for the court to disqualify an elected member of the Parliament. “…the courts claim no supremacy over organs that represent the people of Pakistan.
“The petitioner’s conduct has led to disqualification of an elected representative and, regrettably, he alone is responsible for the consequences,” it added.
Earlier in the day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a petition of former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) senator Faisal Vawda challenging his lifetime disqualification from parliament for concealing his American nationality at the time of contesting for a National Assembly seat in the 2018 general elections.
Last week, the commission after disqualifying Vawda also directed him to return the pay and perks he received first as an MP and later as a senator within two months.
He subsequently filed an appeal with the court on Tuesday, arguing the commission lacked jurisdiction to invoke Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution — which pertains to the qualification of members of Parliament — and to disqualify him for life since it was not a court of law.
While referring to the IHC order on his previous petition against the ECP proceedings, his appeal said the commission was directed by the court to “probe the issue of falsity or otherwise of the affidavit expeditiously as per a judgement of the Supreme Court”.
Vawda’s counsel Wasim Sajjad appeared before the bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.
Sajjad argued the election commission was not competent authority to take the decision on disqualification, adding the decision was not lawful.
He requested the court to declare the decision of the ECP as void.
“When exactly did Faisal Vawda relinquish his dual nationality and what was the date of the general election,” Justice Minallah asked.
“Who is authorised to inquire into the matter?” he asked. “The election commission has the authority to inquire,” Sajjad replied.
“What if the matter would have been sent to the Supreme Court after inquiry,” the justice further asked.
Justice Minallah referring to the verdict of the bench asked: “This court could not go beyond the mandate of the Supreme Court’s judgment”.
“The five-member bench of the SC had given its verdict over a false affidavit,” the bench remarked. “You should read the court’s judgment,” Justice Minallah said.
“Our question is can the ECP disqualify a person for a lifetime,” the counsel said.
The news of his dual nationality emerged in January 2020 when, citing documents, a report published in The News claimed Vawda was a dual national at the time of filing his nomination papers to the commission to contest the NA-249 (Karachi West-II) seat.
The report said he submitted his papers on June 11, 2018, which were approved a week later on June 18. But he applied for the renunciation of his nationality with the US consulate at Karachi four days later on June 22.
He remained an American national even after the scrutiny of his papers was completed.
The Supreme Court has ruled that candidates holding dual nationality are to submit a renunciation certificate of the foreign nationality along with their nomination papers.
The petitions against Vawda were filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MP Qadir Mandokhail and two others in the ECP on January 21, 2020, calling for the parliamentarian’s disqualification.
Later in 2020, a citizen, Dost Ali, also filed a similar petition against him, calling for his disqualification.
Vawda resigned from his National Assembly seat in March last year hours before he was elected to the Upper House.
The verdict also withdrew the notification of his victory. It further said the vote Vawda cast in the Senate elections on March 10 as a member of the National Assembly was also “invalid”.
