Faisal Vawda case ‘a waste of time’, says petitioner

Talking to The Current, Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Qadir Mandokhel said that he has been pursuing a petition against Faisal Vawda for 2 years 9 months. “Now it’s just a waste of time.”

Mandokhel gave the example of an illegal building and a petition against it. “Agar building hee masmaar kar di toh kya faida abb iska” (If the illegal building has been demolished, what’s the use of pursuing a case against it). Mandokhel is referring to the fact that Vawda is no longer an MNA but a Senator now.

Mandokhel says he has high hopes from Sindh High Court where the petition on senatorship is still pending. Mandokhel says he wrote to the US Consulate but he was told by them that they do not reply to individual queries.

Mandokhel says Vawda hasn’t submitted his reply and questions why. He also questioned why the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not doing much about this case.

On Thursday, none of the petitioners appeared before the ECP, meanwhile, Faisal Vawda did.

Vawda, while talking to senior journalist Matiullah Jan, seemed confident and said, “This seems more of a political case, and a political case has no standing. Everyone seems to have backed off for now.”

“The ECP is fully looking into the details of my case and is also providing me with a lot of chances to my rivals. But my all rival parties have disappeared,” added Vawda.

The ECP has three petitions related to the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Faisal Vawda, who is a former member of the National Assembly as well as a recently-elected Senator. The commission is yet to make a decision.

Petitioners against Vawda contend that he had dual citizenship when he filed his nomination papers in the 2018 general elections, a fact that he had concealed at the time. Therefore, they say that he should be disqualified.