Speaker of Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly suspends 27 MPs on reserved seats after SC verdict

The ruling alliance in Pakistan’s Punjab suffered a major setback when the speaker of the provincial assembly suspended the membership of 27 of its MPs on reserved seats following a Supreme Court ruling earlier this week, The News International reported.

Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan announced the suspension of memberships of lawmakers in view of the top court’s decision during a session of the provincial legislative assembly. These legislators had been allocated reserved seats for women and minorities.

The speaker suspended membership in 24 reserved seats for women and the other three for minorities. Of the 27 members, 23 belonged to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). As a result, the party’s representation in the House of Representatives decreased to 203.

The remaining four members included two from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and one each from the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).

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

The suspended women MPs 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.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Pakistan stayed the Peshawar High Court’s verdict on the reserved seat while accepting the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision, The News International reported.

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 and bar members who took oath in the reserved seats from voting in the legislature.

Furthermore, the court noted that the matter relates specifically to the additional reserved seats that would be allocated to political parties at a later date.

Before the annulment, a five-member bench of the Peshawar High Court headed by Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan, including Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, dismissed the SIC’s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision, reserved to hold back seats in March.

In response, the SIC filed a petition with the Supreme Court last month, asking it to allocate the party 67 women’s and 11 minority seats in the national and provincial assemblies and overturn the Peshawar High Court verdict, The News International reported.

Image Source: ANI