ECP notifies five PTI candidates on reserved seats

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan issued notifications for the five reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in Punjab Assembly and all these went to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

According to the two separate notifications on Wednesday, the Election Commission notified names of Batool Zain, Saira Riaz and Fouzia Abbas for three reserved women seats in place of Uzma Kardar, Ayesha Nawaz and Sajida Yousaf, who were de-notified on May 23, following the disqualification of PTI’s 20 MPAs, who had voted for Hamza Shehbaz for CM slot, against their party policy. Similarly, in place of PTI’s Ijaz Masih and Haroon Imran Gill, who were also de-notified owing to disqualification of party members, the Election Commission notified Habkook Rafiq and Samuel Yaqoob as members of the Punjab Assembly on non-Muslim reserved seats.

The Election Commission said that the notifications of the returned candidates were issued pursuant to the order of the Lahore High Court on July 27, 2022, passed in the writ petition No. 34648 of 2022 and 34645 of 2022, the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, passed on July 1, 2022, in a civil petition No. 2242 of 2022 and in pursuance of the provisions of clause (6) of Article 224 of the Constitution, read with Section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017.

The bye-election for 20 PA constituencies is fixed for July 17, which will decide the fate of the incumbent PML-N government, headed by Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz. Meanwhile, former information minister and senior vice-president Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the PTI has finally secured five reserved seats after a protracted fight. “After this, PTI’s total number of seats in the Punjab Assembly has risen to 173, whereas collective seats of PML-N and PPP are 172. One seat belongs to Rahee- Haq and four members are independent and now the Hamza government is counting its last days,” he tweeted.