LAHORE -UNS :In a major setback to the ruling alliance, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan on Friday suspended the membership of 27 MPAs on reserved seats in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had suspended the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to give the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats to other parties.
The opposition lawmakers welcomed the ruling and lauded the speaker with desk thumping.
According to details, MPA Rana Aftab of SIC had raised a point of order demanding the suspension of MPAs after the apex court ruling on reserved seats.
Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan termed the point of order valid and suspended the membership of 27 MPAs on reserved seats. The speaker also read the judgement of Supreme Court in the house.
The speaker’s ruling would be implemented from today and the entry of all the suspended MPAs have also been banned.
The ruling alliance lost 24 woman lawmakers and three minority MPAs in the light of the SC’s judgement.
The suspended MPAs included 23 from PML-N, two from PPP and one each from IPP and PML-Q.
Also Read: Supreme Court suspends PHC, ECP rulings on reserved seats
The number game also changed in the Punjab Assembly following the ruling of speaker.
Earlier, the PML-N had the support of 226 MPAs in the house and now it will stand at 203 after the suspension of its 23 lawmakers.
On March 4 last, the ECP had accepted applications of the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process on the basis of seats won by political parties.
The development resulted in PTI-backed SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats – 23 National Assembly seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women) and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minority).
The Peshawar High Court had also rejected petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for the reserved seats of women and minorities. The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict of not allocating the reserved women and minority seats to the SIC.
