Lahore: Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan on Friday suspended the membership of 27 MPAs on reserved seats in the light of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had suspended the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to give the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats to other parties.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah heard the SIC plea challenging the high court’s verdict on reserved seat.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that mandate given by the people should be properly represented in parliament.
The ECP counsel said, “Let me tell you what the Election Commission has actually done. The reserved seats were distributed only once. These were not re-distributed.”
Justice Shah remarked that court was not concerned with what the ECP had done, but what the Constitution says.
On April 1st, the SIC comprising PTI-backed lawmakers challenged the PHC’s March 14 order that deprived the party of reserved seats.
The petition stated that the PTI candidates joined the SIC after their party lost its electoral symbol, adding that the ECP also raised no objections to the above independent returned candidates joining the SIC.