Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda resigned from National Assembly, it emerged on Wednesday.
The development came as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved its judgement in a case seeking his disqualification as a member of the lower house for concealing his US citizenship in the nomination papers submitted for the 2018 general elections.
A single-judge bench of the high court, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq, resumed hearing in the petition.
During the hearing, the defence counsel argued the case against Vawda stands ineffective following his resignation from the National Assembly.
However, the petitioner objected to the argument, recalling that in the past as well several MPs resigned from their seats only to join the parliament at a later time.
He observed a parliamentarian remains a member of the House unless the Speaker accepts the resignation.
“Faisal Vawda submitted a fake oath regarding his dual nationality and, therefore, he has neither remained Sadiq nor Ameen,” the petitioner remarked.
“It is clear from the record of the Election Commission [of Pakistan] that Vawda was a US national at the time of the acceptance of his nomination papers,” he said.
He added that the scrutiny of the nomination was completed on June 18, 2018 while the PTI leader surrendered his dual nationality on June 25.
According to the law, dual nationals cannot contest elections unless they give up their second nationality. In 2018, the Supreme Court disqualified two PML-N lawmakers, Haroon Akhtar and Saadia Abbasi, for holding dual nationalities at the time of filing papers to the election commission.
Both the members were disqualified under Article 63(1)(C) of the Constitution, which says that a person will be disqualified from being elected or chosen member of parliament if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.
