Gulalai told to show cause for abstaining on PM vote

PTI constitutes parliamentary boards in Punjab, K-P to award party tickets

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday served a second and final show-cause notice on its dissident MNA, Ayesha Gulalai, over not voting for the party’s designated candidate in the election of prime minister in the National Assembly.

Gulalai has recently parted ways with the PTI after levelling allegations of sexual harassment against its chairman, Imran Khan.

Through the final notice, bearing Imran’s signatures, Gulalai has been asked to clarify her decision to abstain from voting in favour of Awami Muslim League chief Shaikh Rashid, who had been supported by the PTI in PM’s election held in the National Assembly on August 1 in the wake of Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification by the Supreme Court.



“In your press conference dated August 1 at the National Press Club in Islamabad, you have publicly declared and announced that you have resigned from the membership of the PTI,” reads the show-cause notice.

It says that the PTI’s chief whip Shireen Mazari has also confirmed that “you abstained from voting in accordance with the direction of your parliamentary party for the designated candidate of the PTI in the election of the prime minister”.

These acts of yours, the notice declares, fall squarely within and constitute valid and actionable grounds under Article 63 A(1)(a) and 63 A(I)(b)(i) of the Constitution for declaring that you have defected from the PTI in terms of the said provisions of the Constitution.

“In view of the foregoing, being the chairman of the PTI, in compliance with the requirement of the proviso to Article 63 A (1) of the Constitution, I, therefore, hereby call upon you show cause, within a period of seven days, why a declaration under Article 63 A(I) that you have defected from the PTI as noted above may not be issued against you,” says then notice issued with the party chairman’s signature.



The notice clarifies that in case no written response is received within the stipulated time period, it shall be presumed that you (Gulalai) do not contest this show-cause notice or otherwise have no defence and acquiesce to the issuance of the declaration of defection against you.

“In such case, I shall proceed further in the matter in accordance with the Constitution and applicable law without any further notice to you,” the notice concludes.

PTI announces parliamentary boards

The PTI has announced constitution of parliamentary boards in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for awarding party tickets. The boards for Balochistan and Sindh would be announced later.



Ticket-awarding board for Punjab comprises 10 members, including party chairman Imran Khan, vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, secretary general Jehangir Khan Tareen, secretary information Shafqat Mehmood, MNA Asad Umar, presidents of all four regions in Punjab, including Amir Kiyani (North), Aleem Khan (Central), Rai Hassan Nawaz (West), Ishaq Khadwani (South), and Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar.

The 11-member parliamentary board for K-P consists of Imran, Qureshi, Tareen, Umar, K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Speaker K-P Assembly Asad Qaiser, additional secretary general Atif Khan, head of Peshawar region Shah Farman, head of Hazara region Zar Gul Khan, head of Malakand region Mehmood Khan and president south region K-P Ali Ameen Gandapur.

These boards will receive applications from candidates seeking PTI tickets to contest the next general election and finalise them.