ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has hailed the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) ruling on de-seating defecting lawmakers of the Punjab Assembly, saying that half of the ‘conspiracy’ against the former prime minister Imran Khan had been rolled back.
“Today, another chapter of this conspiracy has been exposed,” former planning minister and PTI leader Asad Umar said while talking to journalists outside the ECP’s offices along with other party supporters. He went on to say that there was no justification for Punjab Assembly to function.
“I also want to sympathise with politicians who invested millions of rupees in these turncoats. The way one chapter of this conspiracy has been reverted, we want the rest of it to meet the same fate so that the country could be steered out of the current crisis,” Umar said.
He pointed out that Hamza had 197 votes and 25 of those MPAs had now been “disqualified on a permanent basis”. The PTI leader demanded of the government to immediately announce new elections.
He also referred to the ECP, saying “if you are to announce elections, then it must not be done without consultation of major political stakeholder PTI.”
Meanwhile, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry asserted that Hamza Shehbaz doesn’t have the majority in the Punjab assembly to run the government after the decision of the electoral body.
Speaking to a local channel, he said that technically, a government formed on 186 votes is required in the provincial assembly, but in the re-run, the governor Punjab and the president would examine if the government is stable enough to be run if the figure is below that or else they would dissolve it.
Speaking politically, he said, Hamza Shehbaz’s government was never formed in the province and cited a verdict of the Supreme Court according to which a government does not exist without a cabinet in the parliamentary form of government.
On a question regarding the de-seating of five PTI members on the reserved seats, he said the tally of 173 includes five reserved members as well, and that a notification in this regard will be issued tonight.
He demanded the experiments being performed for the past 90 days should end now. He said the government is incapable of taking any decisions and it is seeking National Security Committee (NSC)’s help to set the petrol price.
ECP de-seats 25 PTI MPAs
Earlier in the day, the ECP de-seated 25 dissident MPAs of the PTI who voted for PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz in the election for Punjab chief minister, stating that they had defected from the party.
The decision comes days after the Supreme Court’s decision on a presidential reference seeking its interpretation of Article 63-A, related to the disqualification of lawmakers over defection, which was announced earlier this week.
Article 63-A seeks to restrict lawmakers from voting (or abstaining) in violation of party instructions “in relation to election of the prime minister or chief minister; or a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or a money bill or a Constitution (amendment) bill”.
The votes of the 25 PTI dissidents had been instrumental in helping Hamza get over the line; he received a total of 197 votes while 186 votes are required for a simple majority. Since these 25 lawmakers are no longer members of the House, Hamza has lost his majority.
The dissident lawmakers are 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 Sabtain Raza, Mohsin Atta Khan Khosa, Mian Khalid Mehmood, Mehar Mohammad Aslam and Faisal Hayat.
