No relief for Faisal Vawda as SC turns down plea

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Tuesday turned down a request by PTI leader Faisal Vawda to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Feb 16 verdict regarding his lifetime disqualification.

An apex court bench issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and PTI MNA Abdul Qadir Mandokhel to file their response to the PTI leader’s petition challenging his disqualification from parliament.

Advocate Wasim Sajjad, who represented Vawda, requested the top court to suspended the ECP verdict until the petition is decided and restrain the election monitoring body from holding a by-election on his client’s Senate seat.

During the hearing, the court observed that the petitioner’s objection to the ECP’s jurisdiction to disqualify a lawmaker for lifetime is important. The court adjourned the case for an indefinite period.

Vawda through his lawyer moved the apex court after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) 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.