ECP says the declaration filed against PTI 20 dissident MNAs is not in line with the constitution
\n ISLAMABAD
\nThe Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday dismissed the PTI\u2019s references seeking the disqualification of its dissident members of the National Assembly.
\nA three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved its decision earlier after hearing arguments from all sides \u2014 the PTI and the lawyers of the dissident MNAs.
\nEx-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.
\nBut 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.
\nIn today\u2019s 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.
\nThe 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.
\nToday\u2019s hearing
\nDuring the hearing earlier today, the ECP rejected the request to accept any more records from PTI.
\nPTI\u2019s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry requested the court to provide a copy of the reserved verdict, saying that he will appeal against it.
\nHe maintained that the dissidents had opposed PTI\u2019s request to provide more records.
\n\u201cSome things couldn\u2019t be brought on record properly,\u201d Faisal said.
\nHe said that he believes that he is no more needed and that his case has become biased.
\nWhile presenting his arguments, Noor Alam Khan\u2019s lawyer Gohar Khan maintained that Article 63(A)1 does not apply to Noor.
\n\u201cThe show-cause notice issued by the PTI secretary-general doesn\u2019t have legal status. Therefore, Noor is still a PTI member,\u201d Gohar argued.
\nHe informed ECP that Noor had stated in response to PTI\u2019s show-cause notice that he has neither left PTI nor its parliamentary party.
\nHe said that the party responded to the reply with directives not to vote on the no-confidence motion against then prime minister Imran Khan.
\n\u201cThis proves that the party recognised Noor as its member,\u201d Gohar said.
\nHe went on to say that Noor attended the meeting on April 3 as per the party\u2019s directives to ensure attendance. After this, the party didn\u2019t issue any other directive restricting Noor from attending its meetings.
\nGohar contended that his client didn\u2019t join any other political party but the media gave an impression that Noor violated the party policy.
\nWhen asked if Noor cast a vote on the day of voting on the no-confidence motion, Gohar responded in the negative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ECP says the declaration filed against PTI 20 dissident MNAs is not in line with the constitution ISLAMABAD The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday dismissed the PTI\u2019s references seeking the disqualification of its dissident members of the National Assembly. A three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved its decision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[39,5144,7126],"class_list":{"0":"post-259943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-ecp","9":"tag-pti-mnas","10":"tag-references"},"yoast_head":"\n