Islamabad: In compliance with the Supreme Court's order, former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda on Wednesday handed in his resignation from the upper house. In 2018, Vawda had been elected senator on PTI's ticket.

However, in February this year, the ECP had disqualified Vawda for life for submitting a false affidavit. Subsequently, Vawda had challenged the decision in the IHC, which upheld the ECP decision. Later the former senator had filed a petition against the ruling in the apex court, which was heard by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Bandial. Last month, the bench overturned the life-long disqualification of Vawda and instead simply de-seated him under Article 63(1)(c) of the Constitution on account of holding dual nationality at the time of filing nomination papers for the 2018 general elections.

“The ECP has no jurisdiction under Article 218(3) of the Constitution read with Section 3c or 9(1) of the Election Act 2017 to inquire into and decide upon the matter of pre-election qualification and disqualification of a returned candidate. Therefore, the decision of the ECP was without jurisdiction,” the order said.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 29 2022

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