LHC issues notices to ECP, PTI on notification of five reserved MPAs

LAHORE: A two member bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on an intra court appeal (ICA) of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against a decision of a Lahore High Court single bench wherein ECP was directed to notify members of PTI on five reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly.

The single bench had allowed a petition of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and ordered the ECP to issue a notification about the new MPAs on the reserved seats following the disqualification of 25 MPAs over defection during the election of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

The ICA of the PML-N filed through Advocate Mansoor Usman Awan who argued that the impugned judgement by the single bench is a violation of articles 106(3)(c) and 224(6) of the Constitution.
He said the reserved seats in the provincial assembly were allotted based on the number of general seats secured by each political party. Therefore, if the general seats have become vacant to such an extent that overall representation of the political parties on general seats has altered, the reserved seats must correspond to the new proportion of the general seats secured by each party in the by-election.

He argued that once the general seats of a provincial assembly fell vacant, the reserved seats could not be claimed as of right on the prior proportion which was claimed on the number of general seats held prior to the vacation of the general seats.

He pointed out that once fresh election/by-poll for the general seats had taken place, only then the quota of the reserved seats could be recalculated and the vacant reserved seats be filled to truly reflect the strength of the political parties through proportional representation.

By ruling that the ECP must notify members of the PTI on reserved seats prior to the by-election, the impugned judgement went against the spirit of the system of proportional representation and violated the Constitution, he added.

He asked the court to set aside the decision passed by the single bench. The appeal would be heard by a division bench.

After hearing initial arguments, the bench comprising Justice Shahid Karim and Justice Anawar Hussain issued notice to ECP and PTI for July 14.