LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti will hear on Monday a writ petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) seeking a direction to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue a notification of five MPAs on reserved seats after the disqualification of 25 MPAs who defected in the election of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

PTI MPA Zainab Umar filed the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique pleading that the ECP issue a notification for by-election on 20 vacant general seats and new members would be nominated on the reserved seats.

The petitioner said the PTI proposed five names for nomination in place of the vacant reserved seats, however, the ECP failed to issue notifications for the same which was against the law.

She accused the government of hindering the issuance of the notification of the MPAs for the five reserved seats. She said the deliberate hindrance and willful non-issuance of the notification was in violation of the Article 224 of the Constitution.

The petitioner said there was no other choice except to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction of the court for the enforcement of the law and the constitutional provisions.

She asked the court to direct the ECP to immediately issue the notifications for the reserved seats of the MPAs as the list by the petitioner’s party had already been furnished.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2022