PTI lawmakers to approach ECP for deseating PA deputy speaker

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers have announced to approach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for disqualification and deseating of the Punjab Assembly’s deputy speaker for chairing the budget session at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Addressing a joint press conference with PA Speaker Pervaiz Elahi, PTI lawmakers Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, Raja Basharat and Sibtain Khan announced filing a disqualification reference against the deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari for chairing the separate PA session at Aiwan-e-Iqbal in violation of the party instructions.

Mehmoodur Rasheed said that the deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari has been stopped at the party level from chairing the separate PA session at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. A notice was also sent to the deputy speaker’s staff but he violated the party orders.

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“We will take legal action against him by approaching every platform including the judiciary. We will also move ECP to disqualify and deseat him. Just like 20 dissident PTI lawmakers had been deseated, Mazari will also be declared disqualified.”

Raja Basharat said, “All three moves of the Punjab government are illegal. The said notifications including proroguing the session, summoning the PA session at Aiwan-e-Iqbal and the ordinance should have been signed by the secretary assembly but it was issued with the signature of the law secretary.”

“The government affairs in Punjab are being dealt with in illegal and unconstitutional ways. The government has stepped back from the legal session of the Punjab Assembly to hold it in Aiwan-e-Iqbal without any assembly staffer and secretariat. The Constitution is being mocked and we will move to the court to stop it.”

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Basharat added that Hamza Shahbaz had been brought to the Punjab Assembly via a production order during the PTI government which was also praised by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government. He criticised that Hamza is seemingly thinking differently about the requirement of a production order.

Sibtain Khan said that PML-N has proved that Atta Tarar was its priority instead of the people of Punjab. The legal forum for the budget session is Punjab Assembly, he added.

Prior to the press conference, Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told ARY News that the government is unauthorised to summon the PA session at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. He added that the Punjab Assembly has blown away the PML-N government’s ordinance and it has no constitutional grounds.

He also announced approaching all forums against the illegal PA session.

Regarding the FIA probe against Moonis Elahi, he said that Moonis will appear before the investigators and he has himself asked the authorities to arrest him if it is needed. He said that money laundering cases had also been filed against him and the recent probe was not a new development.