IHC accepts plea for early hearing of petition seeking disqualification of Vawda

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday accepted an application for early hearing of a petition seeking disqualification of Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda over allegedly concealing his US nationality.

A single bench of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq heard the application of Mian Faisal Advocate. The court had already issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other respondents in this matter.

The counsel informed that on the last hearing on Jan 29, the court had directed Vawda to submit his reply to the petition, which he has done that so far.

He said the respondents wanted to intentionally delay the case. The petitioner maintained that the case needed attention of the court on urgent basis as fundamental rights of the petitioner as well as the general public were involved.

In his petition, Mian Faisal stated that Vawda contested the elections from NA-249 (West-II) Karachi in July 2018 on the ticket Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

However, he was a dual national at the time of filing his nomination papers, concealing his US nationality by falsely declaring on oath before the ECP that "he did not have any foreign nationality".

The petition, while mentioning documents of Vawda rescinding US nationality, pointed out that the minister was a US citizen at the time of submitting his nomination papers on June 11, 2018, and even during the scrutiny of his nomination papers, while the returning officer of his electoral constituency approved his papers on June 18.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020