ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified Faisal Vawda as a member of the National Assembly after it found the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) senator concealed his American nationality at the time of contesting for a Lower House seat in the 2018 general elections.
In a short order announced by the chief election commissioner Wednesday, the regulator also directed Vawda to return the pay and perks he received as a parliamentarian within two months.
The ECP reserved its verdict on a set of petitions filed against the senator calling for his disqualification on December 23.
Citing documents, a report published in The News in January 2020 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”.
Meanwhile, talking to media persons in Islamabad, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said Faisal Vawda would move the Supreme Court (SC) over the disqualification verdict against him by the ECP.
He said Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s brother, Umar Amin Gandapur, was also given a stay by the apex court yesterday.
“There is no setback to the party. Faisal Vadwa will also move the SC in this regard,” he said.
