ISLAMABAD: Aisha Nawaz, a turncoat MP of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Punjab Assembly who voted for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Hamza Shehbaz during the election for the office of the chief minister, approached the Supreme Court against her de-notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on charges of floor-crossing.
Nawaz is one of the 25 lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly of PTI who had defected and voted for Shehbaz in the election on April 16. The commission formally de-notified the lawmakers on May 23 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”.
Nawaz on Wednesday became the second disqualified MP after Zahra Batool — mother of PTI MP Basit Sultan Bukhari, also a turncoat — to move to the Supreme Court requesting it to annul the ECP decision, claiming the decision violates the law.
“The ECP violated the principles laid down in the decisions of the Supreme Court,” she said, adding the declaration of the party leader was not in accordance with the law.
In its ruling on May 17, the apex court said votes cast against party direction cannot be counted and must be disregarded. It said that, with reference to Parliament, the fundamental rights of political parties superseded the rights of individual lawmakers.
“The ECP’s decision did not differentiate between the posts of the party chief and the parliamentary chief,” Nawaz claimed.
“The PTI did not issue show-cause notices as per the law,” she maintained and added that under the law, the issuance of a show-cause notice was mandatory.
“The [de-notified] PTI MPAs had no instructions from the party chief for casting vote in Punjab Assembly,” she said.
“The person who filed the reference did so because of his defeat,” she added.
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 razor-thin 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.
