ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its decision on a reference seeking the disqualification of as many as 25 dissident Punjab lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, who voted for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Hamza Shehbaz in the election for the Punjab chief minister.

The electoral decision making body will announce the verdict at 12pm tomorrow (Wednesday).

Hamza, the Sharif scion, was elected Punjab chief minister, defeating PTI-PML-Q’s joint candidate, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi. Hamza had bagged 197 votes, including 25 from PTI dissidents. Subsequently, after a declaration by the PTI, Elahi, who is also the Punjab Assembly speaker, had sent a reference against the dissident MPAs to the ECP, urging it to de-seat these lawmakers for defecting from the PTI by casting their votes in Hamza’s favour in violation of party directions.

The dissident lawmakers are Raja Sagheer Ahmed, Malik Ghulam Rasool Sangha, Saeed Akbar Khan, Mohammad Ajmal, Abdul Aleem Khan, Nazir Ahmed Chohan, Mohammad Amin Zulqernain, Malik Nauman Langrial, Mohammad Salman, Zawar Hussain Warraich, Nazir Ahmed Khan, Fida Hussain, Zahra Batool, Mohammad Tahir, Aisha Nawaz, Sajida Yousaf, Haroon Imran Gill, Uzma Kardar, Malik Asad Ali, Ijaz Masih, Mohammad Sabtain Raza, Mohsin Atta Khan Khosa, Mian Khalid Mehmood, Mehar Mohammad Aslam and Faisal Hayat.

During the hearing today, Khalid Ishaq, who was representing 10 MPAs, said the lawmakers had neither received an invitation nor the agenda for the April 1 parliamentary party meeting. In addition, only two lawmakers received show cause notices on April 7, he said.

The dissident lawmakers did not receive the declaration for disqualification sent on April 18 as well, he further said, arguing that his clients were not given the opportunity to present their stance.

Dismissal of references against MNAs

Last week, the ECP had dismissed the PTI’s references against 20 dissident MNAs, stating that they were not in line with Article 63-A. The matter first came to light in March after several PTI lawmakers were found staying at the Sindh House in Islamabad ahead of the no-trust vote against then-prime minister Imran Khan, some of whom spoke to the media about their grievances with the party. They had refuted allegations that they had been offered money to make the opposition’s no-trust move a success but said they would vote in accordance with their “conscience”.

Subsequently, the PTI had filed declarations and references against 20 members of the National Assembly, seeking their disqualification under Article 63-A of the Constitution. Eventually, the dissident MNAs’ votes were not needed in Imran’s removal, as the opposition managed to stitch together support from government-allied political parties. After Imran Khan was removed as prime minister on the night of April 9, his declarations against the dissident PTI MNAs were sent to the ECP on April 14 by the acting NA speaker.