ISLAMABAD:The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the maintainability of the appeal of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda challenging his disqualification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case.
The petitioner’s lawyer Waseem Sajjad argued that the ECP was not authorized to disqualify his client as it was not a court of law, and prayed the court to turn down its decision.
To a query of the bench, the lawyer said Vawda had submitted his affidavit pertaining to dual nationality on June 11, 2018.
The chief justice observed that Vawda’s disqualification case was being heard by the ECP for the last three years, and asked the lawyer to only point out the errors in the decision.
Waseem Sajjad said his client had not deliberately submitted a false affidavit with the ECP. The court asked that what action the Commission should take in case of a false affidavit, and how Faisal Vawda could prove his honesty.
The lawyer said the ECP should have conducted an inquiry about the affidavit. Only the court of law was authorized to take action if the affidavit were found false after the inquiry, he added.
The bench observed that the Supreme Court in a judgment had observed that the submission of a false affidavit could have serious consequences. The contempt of court proceedings could also be initiated on matter, the chief justice added.
The court asked whether Faisal Vawda had submitted a certificate of leaving his US nationality till date. It was Faisal Vawda who had to prove his honesty and innocence.
The lawyer said Faisal Vawda had resigned as MNA for which he had submitted the affidavit to the ECP.
The court, however, observed that how it could ignore the decision of top court’s five- member bench.
The chief justice asked whether Faisal Vawda could provide a proof regarding leaving his US citizenship by tomorrow.
The lawyer said if the affidavit was found false then Vawda could be disqualified only for the MNA seat against which he had submitted it. He had already resigned as MNA and the ECP could not disqualify him for life time, he added.
He said the lifetime disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution was like a political death sentence for someone.
Justice Athar Minallah observed that many politicians had faced such sentence and despite that the parliament had not abolished the article.
After listening arguments, the court reserved its judgment on maintainability of the appeal.