ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: In what may come as a nightmare for many legislators, the Election Commission will decide next week about the fate of lawmakers who have yet to submit declarations affirming that they are not holding dual nationality.

A senior EC official told Dawn that the deadline given to the lawmakers to submit fresh declarations would expire on November 9.

But technically speaking Thursday (today) was the last date as it would be a public holiday on Nov 9.

He said that while announcing the decision to collect fresh declarations directly from legislators in October, the commission had made it clear that those failing to do so within a month would be presumed to be possessing dual nationality, which would ultimately lead to their disqualification.

He said that some lawmakers who had proceeded on Haj might get some more time to submit fresh declarations. He, however, said the plea by some of them that they had not received any letters from the Election Commission was not acceptable, as their contact with the commission was a proof that they were aware of the requirement.

Giving an update, he said that as many as 331 lawmakers from the parliament as well as the provincial assemblies, including Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and some of his cabinet colleagues, had not yet submitted their declarations sought on the directives of the Supreme Court.

They include 82 members of the National Assembly and 38 Senators.