LAHORE:The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue notification of the five reserved seats of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
LHC has issued a detailed 13-page judgment on five reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly. In the context of the decision, if a seat becomes vacant due to disqualification of a member, it will be filled in accordance with Article 224 (6) of the Constitution.
In this regard, the question arises as to whether the quota of reserved seats will be re-drawn if members are de-seated in a large number of general seats. The LHC further directed the Additional Registrar to immediately issue the order of the court to ECP.
Meanwhile, PTI has taken the stance that once the quota has been drawn after the general election, it cannot be changed later and there is no obstacle to fill the vacancies from the PTI’s priority list for reserved seats. It is pertinent to mention here that the LHC had on June 27 approved PTI’s request to issue notifications for five reserved seats.