The Commission’s three-member bench reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from the lawyers of the PTI dissident MPAs. The bench was headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising Shah Muhammad Jatoi and Nisar Ahmed Durrani.
The dissident member lawyers argued before the bench that his clients had neither received any notice nor the agenda of the party’s April 1 parliamentary meeting.
The lawmakers said that the members did not receive the declaration for disqualification sent on April 18 adding that only two members had received show cause notice.
He said that the PTI dissidents were given no opportunity to present their stance before the party head.
Advocate Ishaq added that the PTI counsel Ali Zafar rightly said that floor crossing is a cancer but he asked Ali Zafar that the dictation of a party head is not a cancer.
The dissident lawmakers lawyer said that the proceeding should be done against those members who went against the party direction because the party direction was to vote in the favour of PML-Q leader Parvez Elahi but most members of the party boycotted the election of chief minister.
He added that the MPAs were free to vote independently once Parvez Elahi boycotted the election.
Javed Malik, dissident MPA Aisha Nawaz’s counsel, told the court that the the no-trust motion had been tabled against Parvez Elahi in Punjab Assembly then how could he send a disqualification reference of PTI members to the ECP.
PTI lawyer Ali Zafar said that the ECP will have to look into whether the party has issued instructions or not and as well as whether a vote had been cast or not.
He said if a vote was cast against party direction then its members will be de-seated.
Faisal Chaudhry said that he is providing the TCS documents before ECP. However, Salman Akram Raja, who was representing dissident members, raised an objection that no evidence would be accepted at the final stage of the case.
Later, the CEC said that the PTI dissident members did not refuse from casting a vote on the day of elections.