The Election Commission of Pakistan Wednesday dismissed the PTI’s references seeking the disqualification of its dissident members of the National Assembly.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved its decision earlier after hearing arguments from all sides including the PTI and the lawyers of the dissident MNAs.
Ex-prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan had sent a declaration to former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser seeking the disqualification of 20 party members after they decided to vote against him in the no-confidence motion. But the votes of the dissident MNAs were not needed to oust Khan from power as the then-Opposition had enough votes to send the government packing in the wee hours of April 10. However, the acting speaker had sent the references against the dissident members on April 14. In short verdict, the election commission unanimously said the declaration filed against the MNAs under Article 63(A) was not found in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan. The PTI had filed references against MNAs Noor Alam Khan, Dr Mohammad Afzal Khan Dhandla, Nawab Sher Waseer, Raja Riaz Ahmad, Ahmed Hussain Deharr, Rana Mohammad Qasim Noon, Asim Nazeer, Amjad Farooq Khosa, Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf, Syed Mobeen Ahmed, Sayed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Mohammad Abdul Ghaffar Wattoo, Sayed Basit Ahmad Sultan, Aamir Talal Gopang, Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Wajiha Qamar, Nuzhat Pathan and Javeria Zafar.
During the hearing, the ECP rejected the request to accept any more records from PTI. PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry requested the court to provide a copy of the reserved verdict, saying that he will appeal against it.
He maintained that the dissidents had opposed PTI’s request to provide more records. “Some things couldn’t be brought on record properly,” Faisal said.
He said that he believes that he is no more needed and that his case has become biased. While presenting his arguments, Noor Alam Khan’s lawyer Gohar Khan maintained that Article 63(A)1 does not apply to Noor.
