ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to continue moving forward on the issue. application An advocate informed the bench that the senior counsel for the appellant is not expected to hear on Monday and sought adjournment of the proceedings on his intra-court appeal seeking disqualification of Senator Faisal Vavda.
While a division bench of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miyangul Hasan Aurangzeb adjourned the hearing of Senator Wavada’s intra-court appeal till December 9, it observed that the appellant had already played hide and seek with the court for more than one time. Was. half year. , years.
Mr. Vavada I resigned He grabbed a Senate seat ahead of a court ruling on a petition seeking his disqualification from the National Assembly and lower house of parliament for allegedly hiding information about his dual nationality while contesting the 2018 general election.
In an application filed before the ECP against Mr Vavada in 2020, Ali, a civilian friend, deliberately withheld his election as a member of the National Assembly in order to conceal information about his US nationality when filing nomination papers for the election. challenged.
The application mentions that Mr. Vavada had submitted an affidavit to the Election Commission to the effect that he was not a citizen of any other country at the time of contesting the election. It said that since the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had made a ‘false statement on oath’, he was disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
Hearing the petition, a three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja gave Mr Vavada a last chance to present evidence in his support and adjourned the hearing till December 23.
Senator Vavada, in his intra-court appeal, asked the IHC Division Bench to consider the facts in which he claimed that a single bench of the IHC headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah had taken up the ECP proceedings in the matter relating to his disqualification. was rejected. His plea for stay was dismissed ignoring it. ,
In the intra-court appeal, Senator Vavada further said that the complainants against him failed to approach the election tribunal within the stipulated time frame. He argued that Justice Minallah did not hear his plea, disposed of his plea, and directed the ECP to ascertain whether the MLAs were dual citizens at the time of filing their nomination papers.
Justice Minallah said that if the ECP finds discrepancies in the declaration of Vavada, they can be prosecuted for contempt of court after a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court declared that the returning officer was a ‘fake ‘ Was. Filing of affidavit would amount to contempt and would have penal consequences, apart from disqualification.
When the intra-court appeal came up for hearing on Monday, a junior counsel appeared before the Division Bench of the IHC and informed the court that the senior counsel for the appellant could not appear as he was not expected to hear on that day. The counsel then sought adjournment of the intra-court appeal proceedings.
Noting that the appellant sought an adjournment for the delay in the proceedings of the ECP, the bench asked the ECP to continue with the proceedings on the application and adjourn the hearing till Thursday.
Published in Dawn, December 7, 2021