ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will decide today 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 turncoat Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.
A five-member bench of the agency will announce the verdict that it reserved earlier in the day in line with the directives of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
The high court had given the commission until June 2 (today) to decide on the matter after the PTI accused the latter of dilly-dallying on the matter to benefit its rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) 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 PML-N vice president Hamza Shehbaz in the election for the office of Punjab chief minister on April 16.
The party subsequently petitioned the high court against the commission after it delayed the notification without providing any justification.
In its petition to the high court, the party said it 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.
Mohammad Sibtain Khan, the party’s Parliamentary Leader in the Punjab Assembly, also invoked Article 104 (5) of the Election Act, 2017, which read: “Where a seat reserved for women or non-Muslims in an Assembly falls vacant as a result of death, resignation or disqualification of a member, it shall be filled in by the next person in order of precedence from the party’s list of candidates submitted to the Commission.”
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.
