SARDAR SIKANDER SHAHEEN
ISLAMABAD: The electoral organisation has finally notified 39 Members National Assembly (MNAs) as the PTI lawmakers – but has also moved the Supreme Court to determine the fate of the remaining 41 MNAs—a move that is likely to delay the allocation of reserved seats to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the assemblies.
These 39 MNAs were previously notified by the poll body as Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) legislators.
According to a notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday but made public on Thursday, the said 39 MNAs have now been notified as PTI returned candidates in pursuance of the SC’s July 12 decision (on the reserved seats in the assemblies.)
Amjad Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sohail Sultan, Bashir Khan, Mehboob Shah, Junaid Akbar, Ali Khan Jadoon, Asad Qaiser, Shahram Tarakai, Mujahid Ali, Anwar Taj, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Arbab Amir Ayub, Shandana Gulzar, Sher Ali Arbab, Asif Khan, Ahad Ali Shah, Shahid Khan, Nasim Ali Shah, Sher Afzal Marwat, Usama Mela, Shafqat Abbas, Ali Afzal Sahi, Rai Haider Khan, Nisar Ahmed, Rana Atif, Changaze Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Ali Sarfraz, Khurram Virk, Latif Khosa, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Aamir Dogar, Zain Qureshi, Faraz Noon, Mumtaz Mustafa, Shabbir Qureshi, Umber Majeed, Awais Jakhar and Zartaj Gul are declared as PTI MNAs, as per the notification issued by ECP Additional Director General (Elections) Nadeem Haider.
In a related move, the ECP, after consulting its counsel in the reserved seats case on Thursday, decided to move the apex court to seek guidance on the remaining 41 MNAs. Advocate Sikandar Bashir Mohmand, the ECP’s counsel, briefed the ECP officials on the matter, it is learnt.
The 41 MNAs are: Abdul Latif, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Nawaz Khan, Atif Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan, Sajid Khan, Iqbal Khan, Zulfiqar Ali, Shehryar Afridi, Yousaf Khan, Zubair Khan, Ahmed Chattha, Aniqa Mehdi, Imtiaz Choudhry, Mobeen Arif, Ihsanullah Virk, Bilal Ejaz, Miqdad Ali Khan, Jamal Ahsan Khan, Umair Khan Niazi, Sana Ullah Mastikhel, Ghulam Muhammad, Saad Ullah, Umar Farooq, Usama Hamza, Riaz Khan, Mahbob Sultan, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Ameer Sultan, Arshad Sahi, Khurram Manj, Mian Azhar, Azim Uddin, Raza Ali Gillani, Ayesha Nazir Jutt, Mian Ghous Muhammad, Javaid Iqbal, Jamshaid Ahmad, Moazzam Ali Khan, Fiaz Hussain and Khawaja Sheraz.
On July 12, in its landmark verdict in the reserved seats case, the top court decided in PTI’s favour, declaring it eligible for reserved seats in the assemblies.
The apex court declared that 39 of the 80 MNAs were shown as PTI members, as per ECP record, but remaining 41 were shown as independents. All these 80 lawmakers joined SIC after February 8 general elections in a bid to secure the reserved seats in the aftermath of the denial of electoral symbol to the PTI.
The 41 MNAs are required to confirm their party memberships to the ECP within 15 days, in the light of the SC order.
Keeping in view that the SC order on reserved seats was issued on July 12, the cut off date for the 41 MNAs to confirm their PTI membership to the poll body within the stipulated 15-day period is July 27.
These MNAs are said to have submitted the related affidavits confirming their PTI membership to the ECP.
The 80 lawmakers are among those 82 MNAs who were notified as SIC MNAs by the ECP this April 26. Faisal Amin Gandapur and Shahzada Gushtasap— who originally belong to PTI— will remain SIC MNAs due to some legal complexities involving their cases—in addition to Sahibzada Hamid Raza, who is the SIC chief.
Despite admitting SIC to be a parliamentary party, the commission declined to allocate reserved seats to the SIC in the assemblies. Instead, reserved seats claimed by the SIC were allotted to other political parties, a controversial decision that attracted massive public outrage, eventually nullified by the top court.
