ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Over 10 per cent of the fresh declarations so far received by the Election Commission from lawmakers affirming they are not holding dual nationality are set to be declared invalid, according to sources.
The sources said the members of parliament and the four provincial assemblies were asked to file fresh declarations duly signed by the secretary of the respective legislature or attested by the oath commissioner.
They pointed out that at least 82 affidavits out of the 700 submitted to the commission were not attested and therefore would be treated as invalid.
An official said that 23 of the 30-odd declarations received from members of the Senate were invalid.
Leader of Opposition in the Senate Ishaq Dar and other PML-N leaders, including Raja Zafarul Haq, Sardar Zulfikar Ali Khosa, M. Hamza, Mushahidullah Khan, Syed Zafar Ali Shah and Pervaiz Rashid, are among the senators who filed invalid declarations.
Some others on the list are chief whip of the PPP Islamuddin Sheikh, Gul Mohammad Lot and Mir Hasil Bizenjo.
Mohsin Khan Leghari, who secured a dramatic victory in the Senate elections in March this year as an independent candidate, Baz Mohammad Khan of the ANP and independent Senators from Fata, including Syed Saleh Shah, Najmul Hassan and Hidayatullah, are also on the list.
About one-fourth of the around 200 affidavits received from members of the National Assembly also fall in the ‘invalid category’.
The members whose declarations are set to be termed invalid, unless attested copies are filed before the deadline falling next month, include Prime Minister’s special assistant Dr Attiya Inayatullah, Minister of State for Information Syed Sumsam Ali Shah Bokhari, Shahid Hassan Bhutto, former minister of state Tasnim Ahmad Qureshi, former defence minister Aftab Shahban Mirani, Sardar Saleem Haider, Bushra Gohar, Bushra Rehman, Yasmin Rehman, Reena Kumari, Rana Tanvir Hussain and Chaudhry Birjees Tahir.
The list also has the names of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Noor Alam Khan, Hanif Abbasi, Ayatullah Durrani, Nawab Yusuf Talpur, Mehboobullah Jan and Noorul Haq Qadri.
Out of the six minority members to have filed fresh declarations, Ramesh Lal and Mahesh Kumar will have to submit fresh ones.
The members of the Punjab Assembly who are said to have filed invalid declarations are Asif Bashir Bhagat, Waseem Afzal Gondal, Malik Akhtar Hussain Naul, Col (retd) Naveed Iqbal Syed, Mian Shafi Mohammad and Tahir Naveed.
Sajjad Ullah and Zamir Khan are the two members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly to have filed invalid declarations while Minister for Excise and Taxation Mir Amin Umrani and Lal Chand are the ones in the Balochistan and Sindh assemblies who will have to file fresh affidavits.
An official of the commission said sufficient time was still available for the lawmakers to file the declarations and resubmit attested ones if they filed unattested ones.
The commission would consider sending reminders after Eid to lawmakers who did not file the affidavits, he added.