PESHAWAR: The wrangle between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership and Javed Nasim, the party MPA expelled by it, aggravated on Thursday as Speaker of the provincial assembly Asad Qaisar approached the chief election commissioner for the lawmaker’s disqualification.

The speaker also sought the immediate suspension of Javed Nasim’s assembly membership until final decision on the case.

Asad Qaisar requested the CEC to initiate action against the MPA under Clause 3 of Article 63A (a) of the Constitution, which deals with the defection of a member of parliament or the provincial assembly.

In an order, the speaker said in his opinion, Javed Nasim ceased to be a member of the provincial assembly and his case was forwarded to the CEC for disqualifying him from holding the said seat of MPA.

He has referred the said order to the CEC for taking action against Javed.

When contacted, spokesman Irfan Khan said Javed Nasim had not defected from PTI.

He said the lawmaker hadn’t done anything, which was considered to be defection under the Constitution.

The spokesman said in case the Election Commission of Pakistan initiated any proceedings in the case, he would defend himself.

Also seeks suspension of Javed Nasim’s membership ahead of Senate elections

In the order, the speaker said Javed Nasim was elected as the member of provincial assembly on symbol of PTI from a Peshawar constituency, PK-3.

He said Javed Nasim had seconded the nomination papers of Waqar Ahmad Khan and Fauzia Fakhruz Zaman as candidates for Senate seats and since the two were not PTI contestants, he violated the party policy by seconding them.

The speaker said the PTI chairman issued the MPA a show cause notice on Feb 28 asking him to explain his position on the matter within 24 hours to prevent expulsion from the party.

He said Javed Nasim had not responded to the show cause notice and therefore, the PTI chairman expelled him from the party terminating his membership with immediate effect.

The speaker claimed that the MPA’s expulsion from the party was impliedly considered as resignation from the party within the meaning of Article 63A (a) of the Constitution and more so, he had defected from the political party by acting contrary to his party’s stated policy.

Article 63A of the Constitution provides different conditions on basis of which a member of a political party could be disqualified on the grounds of defection.

These conditions include if a member resign from membership of his political party or joins another Parliamentary party; if he votes or abstain from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the Parliamentary Party to which he belongs in relation to election of the prime minister or the chief minister, a vote of confidence or no-confidence, or a Money Bill or a Constitution (amendment) Bill.

Under the said Article, he may be declared in writing by the party head to have defected from the political party and the party head may forward a copy of the declaration to the presiding officer of the house (speaker in case of provincial assembly), the CEC and the relevant member.

The speaker is bound to send the declaration to the CEC within two days of its receipt from the head of the relevant political party.

Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015

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