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.