LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday released its short order, setting aside a decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and allowing an application of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for issuance of a notification of its women MPAs against five reserved seats.

Justice Shahid Waheed had issued the order on June 27 on petitions of PTI MPA Zainab Umar and others.

The judge had dismissed an application of the PML-N for recalculation of quota of reserved seats after disqualification of MPAs of the PTI under Article 63-A of the Constitution. He directed the ECP to issue notification of the MPAs against vacant reserved seats from the priority list of the PTI. He directed the additional registrar (judicial) of the LHC to communicate the order to the ECP for compliance.

The judge would write the reasons in a detailed order to be issued later.

The ECP had deferred the notification of PTI MPAs against the reserved seats until the by-polls on 20 general seats scheduled for July 17.

The petitioners argued that the ECP had passed an unlawful decision. They said the ECP showed its malafide intention by seeking assistance from the attorney general of Pakistan and advocate general of Punjab.

They stated that the ECP while issuing the impugned order exercised its jurisdiction with material irregularity appearing on the face of record.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2022