ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would notify the new MPAs on five reserved seats of Punjab Assembly after announcement of by elections results scheduled to be held on July 17.
A five-member ECP bench – headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja – announced the reserved verdict in light of Lahore High Court’s (LHC) directives to dispose of the matter by June 2.
According to the verdict, the allocation of reserved seats — three women and two minorities — would be notified after the conclusion of the by-election for 20 vacant Punjab Assembly seats.
At the outset of the hearing, Advocate General Punjab Shehbaz Shaukat told ECP that Punjab Assembly electoral college would complete after by-elections on 20 Punjab Assembly General Seats that fell vacant after PTI lawmakers were de-notified by ECP.
Attorney General for Pakistan Ashraf Ausaf also appeared before the commission. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Faisal Chaudhry and PML-N’s lawyer completed their respective arguments.
Earlier, the ECP had de-notified a total of 25 dissident MPAs of PTI including five MPAs of reserved seats, who had voted for PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz against their party’s line during the Punjab chief minister’s election last month. The reserved seats included three women and two minority MPAs.
The reserved seats were allocated to parties on the basis of the total number of general seats secured by each political party in the provincial assembly.
