ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday directed the lawyer of rul­ing party’s MNA Faisal Vaw­da to submit the reply to the commission in next hearing in dual nationality case.

A three-member bench headed by the ECP mem­ber from Punjab province, Altaf Qureshi heard the case against Faisal Vawda and adjourned the hear­ings till March 24. The ECP member and head of bench Altaf Qureshi during the hearing told the counsel of Faisal Vawda to submit their reply in next hearing. He said: “You had asked for some more time but still did not submit the reply to the commission.”

In its response, the coun­sel of Federal Minister told the commission that they were not provided with the complete documents of ap­plications.

Meanwhile, the ECP re­jected the plea of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) to hear their plea against the fed­eral minister separately. While commenting on the pleas the member of ECP said that it was not possible the commission to hear the same plea separately.

However, the news report from last week claimed that the PTI leader was a US na­tional at the time of filing his nomination papers – on June 11, 2018 – and applied for renunciation of his US nationality a week after – on June 18 – after the ECP accepted his nomination papers. Pakistan’s law pro­hibits a dual national from contesting election unless he gives up his secondary nationality. The apex court has already disqualified two lawmakers, Haroon Akhtar and Saadia Abbasi, for holding dual nationali­ties at the time of filing pa­pers to the ECP.

Sources privy to the de­velopment had earlier told The Nation that the min­ister had a US passport No 530572047 when he filed his nomination papers and a petition would soon be filed against him to the ECP or the Supreme Court un­der Section 62-1 (C) of the Constitution.