ISLAMABAD    -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday granted another chance to Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda to submit his reply in a petition seeking his disqualification for allegedly concealing his US nationality at the time of filing his nomination papers to contest the last general elections 

A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition moved by Barrister Jahangir Jadoon against the federal minister and deferred the hearing till February 8 after giving Vawda a last chance to submit his response in this matter. 

During the hearing, Justice Farooq termed Vawda’s attitude towards the case as non-serious and suggested to send the copy of the notice to the Federal Cabinet. The counsel told the court that the minister has not submitted his reply yet despite 16 hearings of the case.  

Expressing his annoyance over non-submission of the reply by Vawda, the IHC judge remarked that he did not understand how to get a reply in this case. He added that a copy of the notice be sent to the federal cabinet as now the answer may come from there. 

The IHC bench further said that if Faisal Vawda does not want to give an answer, let us know, then the court would decide on the record of the Election Commission of Pakistan. 

Haroon Duggal Advocate the lawyer of Vawda requested the court to give him some time. At this, the court gave him another chance to file his reply and adjourned the hearing till February 8. 

In his petition, Mian Faisal Advocate stated that Vawda contested the elections from NA-249 (West-II) Karachi in July 2018 on a ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). However, he was a dual national at the time of filing of his nomination papers, concealing his American 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 the 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. 

The petition maintained, “It was only after this approval that respondent No 1 [Vawda] applied for renunciation of his US nationality at the US Consulate, Karachi, on June 22.” It added that the US Consulate issued the renunciation certificate to Vawda on June 25. 

Moreover, the petition stated that Vawda had on June 11, 2018 also submitted an affidavit claiming that he was not a dual national whereas till that time, his foreign nationality was intact. 

It mentioned, “It is held in the judgment [of Supreme Court] that if anybody files a false affidavit, it will be considered he is filing the affidavit before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.” It continued that the Supreme Court has in one of its judgments categorically directed that candidates who previously held dual nationalities should have renunciation certificates at the time of filing of nomination papers. 

The petitioner maintained that Vawda “contested the election of National Assembly while submitting false declaration and hiding his dual nationality” which makes him “liable to be disqualified under the Constitution and law of the land.”