Islamabad - The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday decided to treat all candidates nominated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for March 3 Senate elections as independents.

The ECP took the decision after the Supreme Court declared Nawaz Sharif ineligible to head the PML-N and also nullified all party decisions taken by him since his disqualification on July, 28, 2017.

The ECP meeting chaired by Chief Election Commission Justice (r) Sardar Raza Khan also rejected a plea submitted by PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq contending that he has issued fresh tickets to the party nominees today (Thursday).

The commission discussed different options to implement the apex court’s verdict and decided to consider the ruling party candidates for Senate elections as independents.

The ECP said the decision has been taken to conduct Senate elections on time and to protect the rights and give a level playing field to all the contesting candidates.

The poll body also directed the returning officers to revise Form-33 and Form-54 of the list of contesting candidates accordingly.

The Returning Officer of Senate Elections from Islamabad has already issued a revised list describing the PML-N nominated candidates as independents.

The election commission said that all the candidates who had filed their nomination papers on PML-N tickets now can contest elections in an independent capacity.

The ECP also decided not to change the date for Senate elections and hold them on the scheduled date of March 3.

Earlier, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, along with party leaders Anusha Rehman and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, called on the chief election commissioner to re-issue the tickets to party’s Senate candidates.

Later, he told reporters outside the ECP office that as chairman of the party, he held the authority to issue the party tickets. He said that he had submitted an authority letter and other relevant documents to the ECP.

When asked about the prospect of a new leader for the party, Zafarul Haq said that consultation process had been initiated to appoint an acting president. The PML-N’s central working party will appoint a new president next week, he said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ineligible to continue as president of the PML-N for being a disqualified person, as determined by the apex court in May last year in Panama Papers judgment. The apex court had also ordered the ECP to de-notify Nawaz as president of his party.

In a related development, the ECP has decided to hold a meeting with all parliamentary parties to discuss matters relating to the Senate and general elections, including delimitation of constituencies and electoral rolls.

The meeting will be held on February 26 at the ECP headquarters during which the commission will take all parliamentary parties into confidence regarding the prevailing uncertainty surrounding the March 3 Senate elections, a news website quoted a source as saying.

PML-N out of Senate polls race