LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday sought a reply from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) questioning the ‘delay’ in issuance of a notification of five MPAs on reserved seats after disqualification of 25 MPAs who had defected in the election of Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz.

Advocate Azhar Siddique appeared before the court on behalf of PTI MPA Zainab Umar, pleading that the ECP issued a notification for by-election on 20 vacant general seats and new members would be nominated on the reserved seats.

The counsel said the PTI had 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. He said the government had been causing a hindrance to issuance of the notification of the MPAs on five reserved seats. He argued that the deliberate hindrance and willful non-issuance of the notification was in violation of the Article 224 of the Constitution.

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

After hearing initial arguments, Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti issued a notice to the ECP for submission of a reply on Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2022