No Relief For Vawda As Top Court Rejects Plea For Suspension Of ECP Verdict 

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No relief for Vawda as top court rejects plea for suspension of ECP verdict 

The Supreme Court has adjourned further hearing of the case for an indefinite period

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-March 1st, 2022) The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request of PTI leader Faisal Vawda who wanted 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 submit reply to the PTI leader’s petition challenging his disqualification from parliament.

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.

Advocate Wasim Sajjad appeared before the top court as counsel for the petitioner and asked to suspend the ECP verdict until the petition was decided. He also asked the top court to restrain the election monitoring body from holding a by-election on his client’s Senate seat.

The court observed that the petitioner’s objection to the ECP’s jurisdiction to disqualify a lawmaker for lifetime is important. The court put of further hearing of 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.

Abdullah Hussain

Abdullah Hussain is a staff member who writes on politics, human rights, social issues and climate change.