Election Commission of Pakistan extends deadline for declarations over dual-nationality

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has extended the deadline for submission of declarations by parliamentarians that they did not hold dual citizenship until November 30.

A private TV channel quoting Additional Secretary of the ECP Mohammad Afzal Khan as saying that the decision to extend the deadline was made on the request of the members of the parliament.

He also announced that the by-election for PS-21 in Sindh, which was scheduled for Nov 17, was postponed to December 4 on account of Muharram.

The report quoting sources said that there were 212 lawmakers, including some leading politicians of the PPP, MQM and the opposition’s PML-N, who did not submit the affidavit by November 9, the deadline that had been set by the ECP after the Supreme Court’s verdict in the dual nationality case.

The commission will also take decision about affidavits submitted by dozens of lawmakers without the required attestation.

Those who had failed to submit the affidavits include 75 members of the National Assembly and 29 senators. Besides, there are 76 members from the provincial assembly of Sindh, 24 of Punjab, seven of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one of Balochistan who had yet to file the declarations.

Besides Prime Minister Raja Pervez, prominent among those who have so far not filed affidavits are Punjab PPP President Manzoor Wattoo, Leader of the House in Senate Jahangir Badr, Senator Raza Rabbani, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Nazar Gondal, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah, Defence Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The ECP, through a letter on Oct 9, had asked MPs and provincial lawmakers to submit within one month declarations which should be attested by oath commissioners to affirm that they did not posses dual nationality, warning that those failing to submit the affidavit on oath would be considered dual nationals and action could be initiated against them.

The apex court, disqualifying 11 legislators on Sept 20 for holding dual nationalities, had directed the ECP to obtain fresh declarations on oath from all legislators to examine their cases individually.

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Posted by Web Desk on Nov 12 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.