The Lahore High Court (LHC) Monday instructed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify PTI members on five vacant reserved seats of the Punjab Assembly.
The five seats had fallen vacant after the Election Commission last month de-seated 25 PTI lawmakers for voting for PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz in the chief minister’s election. They defectors were officially de-notified on May 23.
The PTI had filed a petition with the LHC on May 28 requesting it to direct the electoral watchdog 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 the matter. The Commission had, however, decided that the notification would be stayed until by-elections were held in the province on July 17. During the open court hearing, PTI’s lawyer Ali Zafar argued that the electoral body was bound to notify PTI members on the reserved seats after de-seating defecting lawmakers. “The list provided by political parties are not subject to change,” he said. He recalled that when the PTI had approached the Commission for notifying their members on the five reserved seats, the ECP had contended that the de-seating of 20 members had changed the total number of seats for each party.
The lawyer contended that this stance by the commission was “illegal”.
Punjab Advocate General Shahzad Shaukat said that nominations on reserved seats were supposed to be held after the general polls, says a news report. “Now, the positions of parties have changed because of 20 vacant seats. I believe the matter should be taken to a larger bench,” he added. Subsequently, the LHC directed the ECP to issue a notification regarding the reserved seats and declared its previous decision on the matter “null and void”. Speaking to reporters outside the court, Zafar said the LHC’s decision had “changed the numbers game” in the provincial assembly. After the notification of the five reserved seats, the PTI will become the majority party, he said.
“This means that the existing chief minister will now have to take a vote of confidence because the numbers are greater on our end,” the PTI’s counsel said. The votes of the 25 PTI dissidents played a major role in helping Hamza’s election as chief minister. Hamza received a total of 197 votes, while 186 votes were required for a simple majority.
The dissident lawmakers were Raja Sagheer Ahmed, Malik Ghulam Rasool Sangha, Saeed Akbar Khan, Mohammad Ajmal, Abdul Aleem Khan, Nazir Ahmed Chohan, Mohammad Amin Zulqernain, Malik Nauman Langrial, Mohammad Salman, Zawar Hussain Warraich, Nazir Ahmed Khan, Fida Hussain, Zahra Batool, Mohammad Tahir, Aisha Nawaz, Sajida Yousaf, Haroon Imran Gill, Uzma Kardar, Malik Asad Ali, Ijaz Masih, Mohammad Sibtain Raza, Mohsin Atta Khan Khosa, Mian Khalid Mehmood, Mehar Mohammad Aslam and Faisal Hayat. On May 20, the electoral watchdog had passed an order to de-seat these lawmakers, stating that they had defected from the party under Article 63-A of the Constitution, which bars lawmakers from voting against the party line in the election of prime minister and chief minister, in a vote of confidence or no-confidence, a Constitution amendment bill and a money bill.
The PTI originally had 183 members in the house which was reduced to 158 with the defection of 25 lawmakers. With the addition of 10 PML-Q’s lawmakers, their numbers stood at 168. But with the LHC’s verdict on Monday, the numbers of the PTI-PML-Q alliance will rise to 173.
On the other hand, with 25 PTI dissidents no longer part of the house, Hamza’s tally was trimmed to 172. However, since the Punjab CM election, the PML-N has been trying hard to rope in its rebel MPAs in a bid to strengthen the party’s position in the provincial assembly. So far, the party has won back three of the five rebel MPAs.
As the situation stands, the total strength of the house is 351 with the PTI-PML-Q alliance with a total strength of 173 and the PML-N with a total strength of 175. Seemingly, neither party holds the majority in the house.
Ultimately, the by-elections on the 20 vacant seats scheduled for July 17 will decide which party ends up with the majority in the assembly.
