Begins survey of polling stations ahead of elections
The Election Commission of Pakistan is set to announce its verdict in a case pertaining to the 25 dissident members of the Punjab Assembly from PTI today(Friday).
The verdict is expected to be announced at 3pm on Friday.
The ECP, which was due to decide the fate of the 25 defecting PTI MPAs who had switched party loyalties ahead of the election of the provincial chief minister, had deferred announcement of the decision a day earlier and said it would first issue notices to the respondents instead.
The ECP’s verdict gained special significance after the Supreme Court’s Tuesday verdict in which the SC had said the votes of a party’s turncoats would not be counted.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had sent a reference to the ECP against 25 PTI dissidents who had reportedly voted against the party policy in the election for the Punjab chief minister on April 16.
Earlier, lawyers of all the parties had presented arguments before the ECP. After listening to their arguments, the ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, had reserved the verdict.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan has kicked off a countrywide survey of polling stations ahead of holding general elections.
