ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission rejected on Friday please seeking disqualification of PML-N Senator Kulsoom Parveen and PTI member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Javed Naseem.

The petition for Ms Parveen’s disqualification was filed by Balochistan National Party-Awami president Mir Israrullah Zehri.

Ms Parveen was BNP-A’s sitting senator, but contested the recent upper house election on a PML-N ticket. She joined the BNP-A after having been elected senator from Balochistan in 2009.

Ms Parveen pleaded before the ECP that she had sent her resignation to the BNP-A leadership by post before filing nomination papers, but it was not received by the other side.

The ECP held that she had defected but the defection was applicable to her term which had already expired.

The commission also dismissed the disqualification reference against Mr Naseem who had been accused of violating the party discipline by proposing a non-PTI candidate for Senate elections and abstaining from voting on the polling day.

The commission observed that the scope of disqualification on the ground of defection was limited and did not apply to the violation of party’s directions about voting in Senate polls.

Under Article 63-A of the Constitution, the scope is restricted to the member of a parliamentary party who votes or abstains from voting in the house contrary to the party policy to which he belongs to in relation to elections of the prime minister or a chief minister, a vote of confidence, no-trust motion, money bill or a constitution amendment bill.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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