ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: Days after both houses of parliament refused to obtain declarations from their members that they were not holding dual nationality, the Election Commission has sought the same declarations from members of the Senate and national and provincial assemblies.
Letters have been sent to all lawmakers to submit their declarations to the commission within 30 days, making it clear that they would be assumed to be possessing dual nationality if they failed to comply with the direction within the stipulated period.
The defaulters will not only face disqualification for violating Article 63 (1) (c) of the Constitution but also criminal proceedings for committing corrupt practices.
The letters were dispatched after a meeting of the commission presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim took a unanimous decision in this regard on Tuesday.Sources told Dawn that dozens of legislators, including Senators Mushahidullah Khan, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Malik Najmul Hassan and Hidayatullah and MNAs Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Chaudhry Anwar Cheema and Noor Alam Khan, had submitted their declarations to the commission.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, EC Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said the members of parliament could submit the declaration at the EC headquarters and members of the provincial assemblies at the offices of provincial election commissioners.
He said any legislator would have no excuse of being unaware of the EC decision because media had been regularly highlighting the issue.
“We have given them sufficient time. The political parties have expressed confidence in the Election Commission and we want to maintain this confidence,” he remarked.
Answering a question, Mr Khan said the Election Commission was bound to implement verdicts of the Supreme Court and the court had left it to the commission to decide about the method for obtaining fresh declarations.
He said the direction for the recovery of salary paid to the lawmakers disqualified by the Supreme Court for holding dual nationality was given to the secretariats of the respective houses and the commission had nothing to do with it.
The EC secretary said it was the duty of political parties, civil society and ordinary citizens to check voter lists and get them corrected before the announcement of election schedule.
Speaking on the occasion, EC’s Additional Secretary Afzal Khan said the voters’ turnout in recent general elections was between 35-44 per cent. “We have set a target of doubling the turnout in the next elections,” he said.
He said Oct 17 would be observed as national voters’ day to highlight the importance of the ballot. He said voters could check their names in the electoral list by sending their CNIC number to the commission at 8300. Around 11 million people had utilised the service so far, he said.