ISLAMABAD    -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday turned down an intra-court appeal of Senator Faisal Vawda seeking directions to stop the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from proceeding against him in the disqualification case.

A division bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb conducted hearing of the appeal of the Senator and dismissed the same after hearing the arguments of the petitioner’s counsel.

During the hearing, Vawda’s lawyer Hasnain Ali Chohan argued that the opponent of his client in Senate elections had filed a disqualification case on basis of an affidavit submitted to ECP.

Justice Miangul Hassan remarked that it was a requirement to submit affidavit along with the nomination papers of the candidate. He added that a person was still ineligible to hold the membership of Parliament if he had submitted a false affidavit even in previous elections.

In response to a query of the bench, the lawyer said that the affidavit submitted by Fasisal Vawda to the ECP was correct and his client had told the ECP as well in written. At this, Justice Farooq said to the lawyer that then there was no problem and let the ECP probe the affidavit. He remarked that Vawda also did not submit comments in the IHC even after one and a half years. 

Later, the IHC bench dismissed the case and upheld the decision of single member bench which had directed the ECP to conclude the case in 60 days. 

In his ICA, Senator Vawda challenged the October 12 decision by which the ECP had rejected his plea for halting proceedings against him in the disqualification case. The PTI Senator contended that the case against him in the ECP had become invalid, as the body had failed to take a decision within the prescribed time limit. 

He further said that the single-member IHC bench comprising the Chief Justice Athar did not consider the facts described in his plea for similar relief.

In the application filed before the ECP in 2020, petitioner Dost Ali sought Vawda’s disqualification for hiding information related to his dual nationality.

On the previous hearing, the ECP gave last chance to Senator Vawda to explain the concealment of his foreign nationality.