At a hearing today, a three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja rescinded the ECP's notification of Vawda's election as a Senator. The bench also ruled that Vawda had intentionally tried to conceal his dual nationality by resigning from National Assembly seat in March 2021.
In a matter that was revealed in an investigative report published by the News earlier this year, Vawda had failed to disclose his US citizenship when he filed his nomination papers in June 2018. Nor was his dual nationality discovered during the relevant authority's scrutiny of his nomination papers. He went on to win the 2018 general election from Karachi's NA-249 constituency.
Vawda many now appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) to challenge the ECP's verdict.
The SC has previously ruled that candidates must renounce their foreign nationality to run for Senate, and must present a renunciation certificate of the foreign nationality along with their nomination.
This is not the first time a senator has been found ineligible to hold office due to dual nationalist. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senators Saadia Abbasi and Haroon Akhta were also previously disqualified along the same lines.