Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda’s plea against lifetime disqualification over dual nationality. A three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha A Malik heard the case filed by Faisal Vawda challenging his lifelong disqualification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the subsequent ruling by the Islamabad High Court (IHC). During the course of proceedings, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that two questions were asked at the previous hearing. There was a question as to whether the declaration of the High Court under Article 62(1)(f) was maintainable or not while the second question was why not courts to exercise the power of Article 187 to meet the requirements of complete justice in the light of the facts, he added. Advocate Waseem Sajjad, counsel for Faisal Vawda, said that he had submitted written responses to court questions. Upon this, the chief justice appreciated counsel’s response for submission of written replies to court queries and said that the bench would review them later. He said that there was shortage of time and this bench would not be available next week due to formation of new benches. He said that the office would try to fix the case to a bench that had a member of the existing bench. Subsequently, hearing of the case was adjourned till date in office.