LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday announced a schedule for by-elections on 20 Punjab Assembly seats.
The seats fell vacant after the ECP had de-notified the PTI’s dissident MPAs who had voted for PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz against their party line in the Punjab chief minister’s election on May 23.
By-elections on the 20 vacant seats will be held on July 17, said the ECP.
On May 23, the ECP had formally issued notifications to de-notify 25 dissident MPAs who had voted for PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz against their party's line in the Punjab chief minister’s election.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan hereby de-notify the following members of Provincial Assembly of Punjab from the respective constituencies in terms of Article 63A(4) of the constitution,” read the notification.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had sent a reference to the ECP against 25 PTI lawmakers who voted against the party policy in the election for the Punjab chief minister on April 16.
Hamza Shahbaz had got 197 votes as opposed to the required number of 186 in the house of 371 and now after the ECP verdict, the position of the Punjab chief minister is unclear as he has lost the majority in the assembly.
Out of the 25 MPAs disqualified by the ECP, three were elected on the seats reserved for women and two on the seats served for the non-Muslims.
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