Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected the plea from PTI lawyers for deciding the case of PTI dissident Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) early.
The arguments regarding the case of PTI dissident MNAs will be completed today and the evidence in respect of these MNAs will be filed as well.
The case pertaining to dissident MNAs and MPAs of PTI came up for hearing before a 3-member bench of ECP presided over by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Tuesday,
Counsel for PTI requested the ECP he wants to present more evidence in respect of dissident members of PTI. These dissident members have given statements through different TV shows and newspapers on their separation from the party. It is imperative that these statements should be presented before the commission to meet the ends of justice.
Two lawyers of dissident members while opposing the plea of filing more evidence said that all the evidence should have been placed at the time when the speaker National Assembly (NA) had sent reference against these dissident members. The case will be further prolonged if the plea for filing more evidence is accepted. It will become difficult for the ECP to decide the reference within 30 days.
Counsel for PTI said only reference is submitted to speaker NA and it is binding on him to send the reference to ECP. All the evidence and record are required to be placed before ECP so that it could become easy for ECP to decide the case.
The CEC while adjourning the hearing of the case till today (Tuesday) directed both the lawyers to complete their arguments.
The replies were also filed in the ECP by the dissident MPAs of PTI.
The counsels for the PTI requested the ECP to decide the case about PTI MPAs early in the perspective of ongoing constitutional crisis in Punjab. The case of dissident MPAs of Punjab assembly is very clear. All the dissident MPAs have cast vote against the party policy. This case should be decided immediately.
They prayed the ECP to suspend the membership of dissident MPAs of PTI till the decision of the case.
The ECP while rejecting their plea adjourned the hearing of the case till May 13.
