Judgement in dissident PTI MPAs case to be announced tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce its verdict in a case relating to the 25 PTI defectors in Punjab on Friday (tomorrow).

According to the details, the verdict will be announced at 3pm on Friday.

The ECP which was due to decide the fate of 25 PTI MPAs who had defected to the then Opposition ahead of the election of the provincial chief minister, had deferred announcement of the decision a day earlier and said it will first issue notices to the respondents instead.

The ECP’s verdict gained special significance after the Supreme Court’s Tuesday verdict in which while interpreting Article 63-A of the Constitution had said the votes of a party’s turncoat would not be counted.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi had sent a reference to the Election Commission against 25 PTI dissidents who voted against the party policy in the election for the Punjab chief minister on April 16. Earlier, lawyers of all the parties completed their arguments.

After listening to their arguments, the ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved the verdict.

The ECP in its May 11 verdict rejected the disqualification reference against the MNAs of the PTI involved in floor crossing during the no-confidence motion against their Imran Khan. The ECP said in its verdict that the reference against 20 MNAs of the PTI was not proved.