ISLAMABAD, April 24: A legislator, who was forced to resign in August 2009 after allegations of misuse of credit cards against her, has returned to Punjab Assembly on a reserved seat for women.

Shumaila Rana was arrested for allegedly stealing two credit cards of a fellow lawmaker and then going on a shopping spree. But the allegations were later found to be baseless. Ms Rana, who won in 2008 a seat reserved for women in the provincial assembly on a PML-N ticket, not only lost her seat after the scam came to light but also got her membership of the party suspended.

However, the Election Commission on Tuesday declared her a returned candidate after receiving a fresh priority list from the PML-N. The list given by the party in 2008 had been exhausted and the Constitution was silent on how to move forward after creation of a vacancy due to the resignation of Ms Rana.

The 20th amendment to the Constitution addressed the anomaly by inserting a proviso to Article 224 (6) which says: “Provided that if at any time the party list is exhausted, the concerned political party may submit a name for any vacancy which may occur thereafter.”

The Election Commission also declared Mrs Shaheen Shafiq and Mrs Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli as returned candidates on reserved seats for women in the National Assembly.

The two seats had fallen vacant after resignations by Memoona Hashmi and Nuzhat Amir Sadiq. Ms Hashmi resigned from the assembly along with her father Javed Hashmi and Ms Sadiq quit after being elected to the Senate.