LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to decide on the issuance of notification of the appointment of five lawmakers on reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly which fell vacant after the disqualification of dissident Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.
On May 23, the commission de-notified 25 lawmakers who had defected and voted for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Hamza Shehbaz in the election for the office of Punjab chief minister on April 16.
Subsequently, the party moved the high court against the commission accusing it of delay in the issuance of notification.
Its petition, filed on Saturday through Barrister Azhar Siddique, said five lawmakers on reserved seats were among those de-seated by the agency and the ECP is bound by the Constitution to notify their replacements.
The petition said the party has already requested the ECP to notify its members in a written letter but so far no progress has been made. “The ECP is violating the Constitution and the court should intervene and direct it to notify new members on the reserved seats,” Siddique said.
At the outset of the hearing, Amir Saeed Rawn, counsel for PTI, told the court the electoral body was deliberately delaying the matter.
Saeed Gul Khan, regional election commissioner in Punjab, appeared before the court. Zeeshan Ashraf, a legal assistant at the agency, represented the ECP before the court.
“Why are you not issuing the notification [of appointments]?” Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti asked the counsels for ECP.
“The matter is in progress. We have received petitions from both the PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). [The latter] is pleading against the issuance of the notification. June 2 has been fixed for hearing of the matter,” Ashraf told the court.
“The ECP has been made a respondent in those petitions. Notices have been served on both the parties,” he added.
Subsequently, the court instructed the ECP to pass a verdict by June 2 “even if one of the parties does not appear” and adjourned the hearing.
DE-SEATING OF DEFECTORS
The de-notification of the MPs came shortly after PTI approached the top electoral body to issue a notification of the latter’s decision to de-seat dissident legislators on charges of crossing the floor under Article 63-A of the Constitution.
Article 63-A provides that MPs who defect could lose their seats if they then vote against their party, but the government aims to find out whether that also applies before they cast their votes.
It reads that an MP can be disqualified on grounds of defection if they “vote or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the parliamentary party to which he belongs, in relation to the election of the prime minister or chief minister; or a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or a money bill (budget) or a Constitution (amendment) bill”.
With these 25 lawmakers no longer members of the assembly, Shehbaz, who won for the chief minister with the help of the dissident legislators, has lost his majority in the Punjab Assembly, raising questions about the status of his government.
Shehbaz got 197 votes in the chief minister’s election but is now left with the support of 172 members in the house. A candidate requires the support of at least 186 lawmakers in the 371-member House to be elected as the chief minister.
