Supreme Court to decide fate of 16 MPs
By: Mumtaz Alvi
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday dispatched a list of 16 legislators who had failed to file fresh affidavits on their nationality to the Supreme Court Registrar.
The ECP also sent information about those who had failed to file the affidavits.About 1,160 senators; MNAs and MPAs were asked by the electoral body to submit new affidavits on their nationality in line with the Supreme Court’s judgment, handed down on September 20, 2012.
Over a dozen MPs, mostly belonging to the MQM and PPP, resigned as legislators instead of filing fresh affidavits, for they had two passports.
“Our job was to obtain fresh affidavits from all the legislators and send these to the Supreme Court, therefore, we are not in a position to say how many of these are dual or more nationality holders,” said a senior ECP official when The News asked him how many out of those who had filed their affidavits had dual nationalities.
The bar on anyone having dual or more nationalities to contest election was part of the Constitution in 1956 and onwards and even in the 1973 Constitution, it was retained.
The ECP would issue special instructions to the election staffers at the time of the electoral process to ensure that no candidate with dual nationality manages to get his or her nomination papers Okayed, the ECP sources said.
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