Faisal Vawda seeks early hearing of his appeal against disqualification

ISLAMABAD: PTI leader and former federal minister Faisal Vawda Saturday filed plea in the Supreme Court for an early hearing of his appeal against lifetime disqualification from Parliament, ARY News reported.

In his petition Vawda pleaded for early hearing of his appeal in the next week due to urgent nature of the matter.

PTI leader Faisal Vawda had challenged his disqualification from the Parliament in a plea in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Vawda through his lawyer moved an appeal in the apex court against the verdict of Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) on Feb 16 that dismissed his petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision of disqualifying him for concealing his US nationality at the time of contesting the National Assembly election in the 2018 elections.

Citing the election monitoring body and others as respondents in his appeal, he contended that the commission had no authority to disqualify any politician for lifetime as it was not a court of law.

The PTI leader said the IHC dismissed his petition against his disqualification in haste and pleaded with the top court to set aside the ECP decision of disqualifying him for lifetime.

An ECP bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Faisal Sultan Raja, had disqualified Vawda for concealing his dual nationality with a direction to return the salary and other benefits he had received as a minister and a National Assembly member within two months. He was also de-notified as a senator.