PESHAWAR, Feb 26: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has informed the NWFP Assembly speaker that two of its female MPAs should be disqualified because they did not vote for the party candidate during Senate elections last year.

The provincial parliamentary leader of PPP, Abdul Akber Khan, issued two declarations under Article 63A of the Constitution, declaring that show-cause notices had been served on two MPAs — Ms Salma Babar and Ms Muneeba — on Feb 14 but they had not yet filed any reply.

The NWFP Assembly speaker is constitutionally bound to send the declarations to the chief election commissioner, who should lay the declarations before the election commission for its decision.

Ms Salma Babar has already announced her intention to join the Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao) at a press conference on March 6 in Dera Ismail Khan.

The party’s parliamentary leader stated that notices had been sent to the two lawmakers on their postal addresses and through secretary to the provincial assembly.

He stated that the show-cause notices sent through the secretary had been received back having been refused but the ones sent at their home addresses appeared to have been delivered.

Mr Akber stated that they had failed to submit replies within the given time, therefore, he declared that they had defected from Pakistan people’s Party (Parliamentarians) and as such had incurred disqualification on the ground of defection and violation of instructions of the party.

In the show-cause notices, the parliamentary leader stated that in the Senate Elections last year, they had not cast votes in favour of the party’s candidate, Farhatullah Babar, and had, thereby, openly violated the party instructions.

He stated that having held preliminary investigations he was convinced that they had defied the instructions of the party and had not cast their vote in favour of the party candidate.