LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) accusing it of delay in the issuance of notification of the appointment of five lawmakers on reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly which fell vacant after the disqualification of party’s dissident legislators.
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.
The petition filed on Saturday through 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.
It said the party has 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,” he said.
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.
