ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has declared Ayesha Gulalai ‘a defector’ and asked the National Assembly speaker and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to begin the process of her disqualification from the lower house.

In a letter addressed to Ms Gulalai, PTI chairman Imran Khan noted that she had abstained from voting for the party’s designated candidate in the recent election of the leader of the house, or prime minister.

This, the letter states, constitutes valid and actionable grounds under Article 63A(1)(a) and 63A(1)(b)(i) for declaring her a defector.

Copies of the letter have also been sent to the speaker’s office and the chief election commissioner (CEC), with separate requests to each to expedite action on the party’s declaration.

Article 63A of the Constitution deals with the circumstances under which a lawmaker can be disqualified on grounds of defection.

Inserted by the 18th Amendment, the first two sub-clauses of the article state that a lawmaker can be disqualified if they either resign from membership of their party or join another party, or “votes or abstains from voting in the house contrary to any direction issued by the parliamentary party to which he belongs” with regard to the election of the prime minister.

Seeks her disqualification from National Assembly under Article 63A of Constitution

Such a lawmaker “may be declared in writing by the head of the parliamentary party to have defected from the political party, and the head of the parliamentary party may forward a copy of the declaration to the presiding officer, and shall similarly forward a copy thereof to the member concerned”.

The PTI letter also mentioned the show-cause issued to Ms Gulalai on Aug 10, arguing that since she did not respond to it, she had “acquiesced to the issuance of the declaration against [her]”.

The letter requests the NA speaker to act on the declaration, dated Aug 28, in line with the Constitution, reminding him that if the speaker’s office does not refer the matter to the CEC within two days, it shall be “deemed referred to the CEC, who shall lay the same before the ECP for confirmation”.

Under the Constitution, the ECP will have 30 days from the receipt of the declaration to take action on the basis of the party head’s declaration.

But PTI’s case against Ms Gulalai may not be as open-and-shut as the party thinks, and a minor technicality may prevent her from being disqualified for not voting in the PM’s election.

Legal experts attach great significance to the use of the word “abstain”, and say that there is a fine distinction between “being absent” and “abstaining”; while the former refers to the act of not showing up to vote, the latter implies that a member present in the house did not vote in accordance with its party whip.

Incidentally, Ms Gulalai was not the only PTI member absent from NA proceedings on the day of the PM’s election — both Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen, the chairman and secretary general of the PTI — were absent from the lower house on Aug 1 and did not vote for Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the party’s designated candidate in the contest.

However, PTI whip Dr Shireen Mazari told Dawn that both lawmakers had given prior intimation of their absence from the house, and as such, their abstention did not violate party discipline.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2017