ECP de-seats PTI's 25 dissident members

Islamabad: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has de-seated 25 dissident members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Punjab Assembly, who had voted against the party when voting for Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.  

The Election Commission has convened a crucial meeting today (Friday) on the issue of disqualification of deviant members.

On May 17, ECP reserved its verdict on a reference seeking the disqualification of 25 dissident MPAs of the PTI.

The commission, in its verdict, said that the parliamentarians had defected from the party.

It come after Supreme Court’s interpretation of Article 63(A), which stated that parliamentarians cannot vote against their party policy. The apex court also announced that the votes of dissident lawmakers cannot not be counted.

De-seated MPAs

• Aijaz Masih
• Aleem Khan
• Ayesha Nawaz
• Faisal Hayat
• Fida Hussain
• Haroon Imran Gill
• Malik Asad
• Malik Ghulam Rasool Sangha
• Mehr Mohammad Aslam
• Mian Khalid Mehmood
• Mohammad Ameen Zulqarnain
• Mohammad Salman
• Mohammad Tahir
• Mohsin Ata Khan Khosa
• Muhammad Ajmal
• Nazeer Ahmed Khan
• Nazeer Chohan
• Noman Langrial
• Raja Sagheer Ahmed
• Saeed Akbar Khan
• Sajida Yousuf
• Sibtain Raza
• Uzma Kardar
• Zahra Batool
• Zawar Warraich

Notably, 16 of above mentioned MPAs belong to disgruntled Jahangir Tareen group, five to Aleem Khan group and four to Asad Khokhar group.

Hamza Shehbaz secured 197 votes—during election of Chief Minister’s slot—opposed to the required number of 186 in the House of 371.

Now, Hamza lost the majority as the dissidents have been de-seated—who were the key to his victory.

During the proceedings of the hearing, PTI’s counsel argued that the parlimantarians had voted for Hamza Shehbaz and had gone against the party’s decision.  

However, the dissidents members had argued that since they did not get any clear guidelines from the party and in the absence of any direction, the party cannot move against them.