Big blow to PML-N as 27 MPAs on reserved seats in Punjab Assembly threaten suspension

• Speaker suspends members of 24 female, 3 minority MPs.
• SC stayed PHC’s judgment on reserved seats and accepted SIC’s plea.
• Supreme Court bans MPAs from voting on legislation pending final ruling.

LAHORE: Following the Supreme Court’s decision on reserved seats after overturning the Peshawar High Court verdict, the ruling alliance suffered a major blow as its 27 legislators in the Punjab Assembly were suspended on Friday.

After reading out the Supreme Court verdict in the provincial Legislative Assembly, Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan suspended the memberships of 27 MPs who had been allocated reserved seats for women and minorities.

23 of the 27 MPs belonged to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), whose number was reduced to 203 in the House of Representatives.

Subsequently, two MPs from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and one each from the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were suspended.

The speaker suspended membership in 24 reserved seats for women and the other three for minorities.

Suspended Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) representing minorities in the Punjab Assembly include Tariq Masih Gul, Waseem Anjum and Basro Jee.

The suspended female MPAs include Maqsoodan Bibi, Robina Nazeer, Salma Zahid, Kanwal Noman, Zeba Ghafoor, Saeeda Samreen Taj, Sheher Bano, Amna Perveen, Syed Sumera Ahmed, Uzma Butt, Afshan Hussain, Shagufta Faisal, Nasreen Riaz, Sajida Naveed and Farzana Abbas, Maria Talal, Tasheen Fawad, Abida Bashir, Saadia Muzaffar, Faiza Momina, Amira Khan, Samiya Ata, Rahat Afza and Rukhsar Shafiq.

SC verdict on reserved seating

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court stayed the PHC’s verdict on the reserved seat while accepting the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had rejected the party’s request to withdraw reserved seats from it.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah announced the verdict.

The top court said it would hear the case daily starting June 3 to bar members who took oath in the reserved seats from voting in the legislature.

Furthermore, the court observed that the said question only related to the additional reserved seats that would be subsequently allocated to the political parties.

Before the cancellation, a five-member PHC bench headed by Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan and comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Shakeel Ahmad heard the SIC’s petition against the ECP’s decision to award reserved seats to it withdrawn, rejected march.

In response, the SIC had last month asked the Supreme Court to allocate 67 women and 11 minority seats to the party in the national and provincial assemblies and set aside the PHC verdict.