ECP rejects plea against PMLN MPA

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday dismissed a petition seeking the disqualification of PMLN Punjab Assembly lawmaker Sonia Asher.

A three-member bench of the commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja with Shah Muhammad Jatoi and Justice (retd) Ikramullah Khan as members, announced the 13-page verdict.

The bench maintained that minority women were eligible to contest and get elected on women’s reserved seats. The Commission observed that there was no constitutional or legal restriction preventing non-Muslim women from contesting either general or reserved seats.

“…hence Ms. Sonia Asher beinq a woman could be elected to reserved seats for women regardless of her religion. Hence she was rightly notified by the Election Commission against reserved seat for women in the provincial assembly of Punjab,”, the order reads.

It emphasized that minority women cannot be barred from contesting elections on general or reserved seats. The petition against Sonia Asher was filed by Saadia Muzaffar and Fiza Maimoona, who both belong to the PMLN.

The two were among those who got reserved seats for women in the Punjab Assembly after the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats quota was distributed among other parties, but had been suspended after a verdict by the Supreme Court constitutional bench.

The two lawmakers had challenged Sonia Asher’s eligibility on the grounds of being a non-Muslim candida