The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday stayed the notification of new lawmakers on five seats of the Punjab Assembly reserved for women and minorities after they fell vacant following the de-seating of 25 dissident PTI lawmakers.
A five-member bench announced the ruling, which was reserved earlier, in line with the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) directives.
Last month, 25 PTI dissident lawmakers were de-seated for voting for PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz in the Punjab chief minister’s election. The PTI had filed a petition in the LHC on May 28 requesting it to direct the ECP to notify the five new MPAs and “summon [them] personally”. Subsequently, the high court had given the ECP a deadline for June 2 to decide on the matter.
The electoral watchdog, in its decision on Thursday, said the notification would be stayed until by-elections are held. It also rejected the PTI and PML-N’s petitions.
Earlier during the hearing at the ECP on Thursday, PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry had argued that the incumbent government in Punjab does not have the majority and, therefore, does not deserve to rule.
He said the ECP should “immediately” issue notifications for new MPAs on the reserved seats and contended that as per the Constitution, the new MPAs would be from the same party the previous ones were de-seated from.
PML-N’s counsel Khalid Ishaq contended that the case was that of a “first impression” and the principle of proportional representation could not be ignored.
He requested the Election Commission to notify new MPAs in accordance with the current proportion in the Punjab Assembly.
For his part, Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf argued that the principle of proportional representation could not be applied until the Assembly was “complete”.
“Twenty of PTI’s seats have been reduced, after which they cannot have the same proportion. Nobody can tell which party will be successful in by-elections.”
Ausaf said it would be “more appropriate” if the ECP waited until the by-elections.
