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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday announced that the selection of candidates for five reserved seats will be done after by-polls.
The seats fell vacant after the PTI dissident members were de-seated by ECP in the light of the Supreme Court decision regarding deviant lawmakers.
The electoral body announced the reserved verdict which a five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja had reserved earlier.
The decision has been announced in light of the Lahore High Court’s order to the ECP which had ordered the electoral body to dispose of the matter by June 2.
The seats had fallen vacant after de-seating of 25 PTI lawmakers who had swayed from the party line and voted for Hamza Shehbaz in the election of the chief minister.
Among 25 defectors, three lawmakers were elected on reserved seats for women while two were elected on reserved seats for minorities.
Following the delay in notifying new members of the reserved seats, PTI had moved to the high court on May 28 and maintained that the ECP was deliberately delaying the matter.
After de-seating of its lawmakers, PTI currently has 158 seats in the Punjab Assembly and hopes to retain its strength of 183 including five reserved seats.
