In February, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified Vawda for concealing his US citizenship and directed him to return the salary and other benefits he had received as a minister and as a member of the National Assembly, within two months. It had also de-notified him as a senator.
In his petition, Vawda has sought to set aside a declaration by the ECP on Feb 9 which led to his disqualification as a lawmaker for life. Vawda pleaded that the ECP had cited no reason for invoking Article 62(1f) of the Constitution to disqualify him for life. The commission appears to be under an impression that any person disqualified under Article 63(1c) – for having dual nationality – could automatically be penalised under Article 62(1f), he said. In order to incur a penalty under Article 62(1f), there must be mens rea (criminal intent) as well as evidence before a court of law, the petitioner said, but “both are missing in the ECP’s pronouncement”. The ECP had disqualified Vawda for life by invoking Article 62(1f), even though the Supreme court had held in Allah Dino Bhayo case last year that the commission was not a court of law, he said.
It is pertinent to mention that in 2018, the apex court had ruled that disqualification handed down under Article 62 (1)(f) was for life. Article 62(1)(f) was the same provision under which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by a five-judge SC bench on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers case. Likewise, former PTI leader Jahangir Tareen was disqualified in 2017 by a separate bench of the apex court under the same provision.
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