Faisal Wawda: PTI Senator disqualified, salaries taken as Member Assembly, orders to return benefits in two months
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has disqualified Senator Faisal Wawda of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for submitting a false affidavit on the issue of dual citizenship along with nomination papers in the 2018 general elections.
A three-member bench headed by the Chief Election Commissioner today (Wednesday) delivered its reserved judgment in which Faisal Wawda was directed to pay the salaries and benefits received as a member of the National Assembly and Federal Minister within two months. Submit back to the assembly.
The Election Commission has also issued orders to withdraw the notification of success of Faisal Wawda as a senator. The ECP in its decision said that Faisal Wawda had resigned from the National Assembly seat to cover up his crime.
The Election Commission has said in its decision that Faisal Wawda was not eligible to file nomination papers to contest the National Assembly seat in 2018.
The verdict said that since Faisal Wawda hid his dual citizenship and when the matter was in the Islamabad High Court, he resigned from the National Assembly seat which made the matter more dubious.
The ECP in its decision said that in view of all these circumstances, the notification issued by the ECP on March 10, 2021 for the success of Faisal Voda as a Senator is withdrawn.
Has Faisal Wawda been disqualified for life?
The ECP in its decision also referred to Article 63-1C of the Constitution which deals with dual citizenship and at the same time in its decision also referred to Article 62-1F of the Constitution which deals with lifelong disqualification. ۔
Former Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad has said that Faisal Wawda was disqualified under the Life Disqualification Act because he hid the facts in his affidavit.
Talking to NEws, he said that the decision of disqualification of Faisal Wawda has been taken by the Election Commission in the light of the decisions given by the Supreme Court in the past in which former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen was disqualified for life for concealing facts.
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On the other hand, Faisal Wawda's lawyer Akhtar Abbas said that he would challenge the decision of the Election Commission in the Supreme Court.
Speaking to the News he said that the Election Commission had disqualified his client on just one photocopy.
He said that no concrete evidence was presented by the petitioners in the Election Commission against his client for holding dual citizenship.
What were the charges against Faisal Wawda?
In this regard, it was stated in the petition filed in the Election Commission that Faisal Wawda submitted his nomination papers to the Election Commission on June 11, 2018 in which he did not show dual citizenship irrespective of whether he had examined the nomination papers. At the time, he was also a U.S. citizen.
The petition also said that Faisal Wawda's papers were accepted on June 18, 2018 while he submitted the application for renunciation of US citizenship on June 22, 2018 and he received the certificate of renunciation of citizenship from US embassy on June 25, 2018 which he Was after the submission of nomination papers.
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It is to be noted that the Supreme Court has made it clear that a certificate of renunciation of dual citizenship must be present while submitting nomination papers.
Faisal Wawda had filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court in October last year seeking restraint of the ECP from proceeding with the matter. However, the apex court rejected the petition and directed the ECP to decide on the matter within two months. The ECP had last month reserved its decision on the petition.
It may be recalled that among those who challenged the eligibility of Faisal Wawda was also Abdul Qadir Mandokhel who had won the by-election on the National Assembly seat vacated by Faisal Wawda.
The Faisal Wawda case has been pending for a long time
Faisal Wawda's case was pending in the Islamabad High Court for a long time and in order to avoid the sword of incompetence hanging over him, Faisal Wawda resigned from his National Assembly seat and became a member of the Senate.
However, even after that when the Election Commission did not stop the action against Faisal Wawda, this time Senator Wawda again reached the Islamabad High Court and requested that the Commission be stopped from this hearing.
Now unlike MNA Faisal Wawda, Senator Faisal Wawda did not prove to be very lucky and this time the court did not accept his request and Justice Amir Farooq directed the commission not to stop the proceedings.
Faisal Wawda then filed an intra-court appeal against the decision and asked the court to quash the November 12 decision of the court and the October 12 decision of the Election Commission to declare the disqualification petitions admissible.
But even after this request, Senator Faisal Wawda could not get relief and once again he had to be a part of the proceedings of the Election Commission.
What is the background of the application for disqualification on dual citizenship?
Following the news published in Pakistan's The News newspaper in January 2020, PPP leader and opposition candidate Abdul Qadir Mandokhel had challenged Faisal Wawda's eligibility in the Islamabad High Court.
During the hearing, Faisal Wawda's lawyer Barrister Moeed had submitted his client's birth certificate to the commission stating that Senator Faisal Wawda was born in the US state of California and is a US citizen by birth. According to him, before submitting the nomination papers, Faisal Wawda had his foreign passport canceled and Faisal Wawda did not lie.
The Chief Election Commissioner had inquired whether the revocation of his passport meant that his citizenship had been revoked, to which his lawyer said that it was written in the Returning Officer's order that Faisal Wawda's foreign passport had been revoked.
Faisal Wawda also said that NADRA issues NICOP cards to persons with dual citizenship while they were issued ordinary identity cards. He had said, "There is no such thing as a dual citizen who has a common identity card and a person holding a dual national identity card cannot open a bank account."
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