The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday disqualified ruling PTI’s Faisal Vawda for concealing his dual nationality.
According to the decision announced by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, Faisal submitted a false affidavit when he filed his nomination papers in 2018.
The CEC deprived the PTI leader of his senate seat also by nullifying the notification. Faisal contested recent Senate election after resigning from National Assembly in order to avoid disqualification.
A three-member ECP bench headed by CEC Raja heard the case and reserved its judgement on petitions seeking Vawda’s disqualification on December 23 last year. The ECP bench had during the last hearing given Vawda the last chance to defend himself and explain his position.
The petitions argued that Vawda was a dual national at the time of filing his nomination papers to contest the 2018 general election. Vawda submitted his nomination papers to the ECP on June 11, 2018 and had allegedly applied for renunciation of his US nationality days after that.
Qadir Khan Mandokhel, Mian Faisal and Mian Asif Mehmood subsequently filed petitions with the ECP, seeking Vawda’s disqualification.
During the last hearing, Barrister Moeed, the counsel for Vawda, had submitted the senator’s birth certificate to the ECP, stating that his client was born in California and was a US citizen by birth.
