25 dissident Punjab MPAs: PTI’s plea seeking suspension of membership rejected by ECP

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday rejected the request of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to suspend the legislative memberships of its 25 dissident MPAs in Punjab Assembly, reiterating that defection cases would be decided within the constitutionally prescribed time period.

“We have limited time—first we will decide on the maintainability of the defection cases—then these cases (if maintainable) will be decided within the time period allowed by the constitution,” remarked Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja during the case proceedings.

He headed the three-member bench that heard the case, comprising Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi.

“The case of Punjab Assembly MPAs can be decided in just a few minutes. They violated the party discipline and voted in the election of chief minister Punjab last month against the party’s directions. Their disqualification is imminent. This is an open-and-shut case as far as the dissident MPAs of Punjab Assembly are concerned,” said PTI counsel Faisal Chaudhry.

The ECP bench was of the view that suspending the legislative memberships of the dissidents while the proceedings of the case were pending in ECP was not permissible under the law.

The PTI counsel urged the bench to immediately decide on the maintainability of the case.

Some PTI dissidents including Member National Assembly (MNA) Noor Alam Khan have challenged the maintainability of the case. The dissident MNAs have taken the stance that unlike the dissident PTI MPAs who voted in the CM Punjab election against the party’s direction, they did not participate in voting on the no-confidence motion against the then Prime Minister Imran Khan that was held last month nor did they join any other political party.

The case proceedings were adjourned till today (Wednesday).

On April 25, the ECP announced to summon 46 PTI dissident lawmakers—20 MNAs and Punjab Assembly’s 26 MPAs for hearing their cases under Article 63-A.

Later, the case against one PTI dissident Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Javed Akhtar was dismissed on the grounds that he did not case vote in the election of CM Punjab. The cases against remaining 25 MPAs are pending in ECP.

Article 63-A deals with the defection of those lawmakers who vote against their party’s direction in the election of PM/CM, vote of confidence/vote of no-confidence and money bill.

The ECP, under Article 63-A, is bound to decide the defection case(s) within 30 days of the receipt of related case(s).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022