ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), challenging the verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on notifying new lawmakers on five reserved seats of the Punjab Assembly after they fell vacant following the de-seating of 25 defecting MPs of the party.
On May 23, the commission de-notified 25 lawmakers — including five elected on seats reserved for women and minorities — 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.
However, in its verdict on the fate of reserved seats released June 2, the electoral watchdog stayed the notification until the by-polls on the 20 general seats scheduled for July 17, saying the general seats of the assembly had been reduced.
In his petition moved Tuesday, party’s secretary-general Asad Umar said the June 2 decision of ECP is against the law.
“The ECP issued a verdict to de-notify 25 dissidents of PTI. Uzma Kardar, Sajid Yousuf and Aisha Nawaz were also de-notified under the verdict,” the petition read.
It maintained that a notification is supposed to be issued for the reserved seats as per the party’s priority list but the ECP stopped the notification till the by-election. He contended that the commission is responsible for issuing this notification.
The former minister also mentioned the names of PTI members on the party’s priority list for the reserved seats. Batool Zain, Saira Raza and Fauzia Abbas are on the list.
The plea seeks nullification of the verdict.
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.
