Hours before Senate polls: PTI loses a vote in K-P

Lawmaker from Shangla de-seated by top poll body for dishonesty

PESHAWAR: With just hours to go for the Senate polls, the ruling party suffered a blow after an MPA was de-seated by the top poll body for dishonesty.

The PTI has lost a vote in the Senate elections which are scheduled to be held on March 3. A notification for de-seating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA from Shangla Abdul Munim Khan was issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday.

The de-seating could impact the chances of PTI candidates bagging a slot in the upper house of Parliament.

In the notification, the commission revived a notification it had issued last April disqualifying Munim as a member of the K-P assembly.

Munim had contested ECP’s decision and had managed to obtain a stay order on the notification. But he was dealt a blow last week when the apex court upheld the ECP’s notification.

Munim had been elected as a member of the K-P assembly in the 2013 general elections from PK-88 Shangla after beating Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) candidate Sher Alam.

Alam had subsequently filed a reference in the ECP, asking the poll body to disqualify Munim for being dishonest and concealing facts from the ECP while contesting the general elections — a violation of Article 62 and 63.

According to Alam, before contesting the elections, Munim was a school teacher in the Kohistan area. He drew his March 2013 salary from the school and a month later he contested the elections in May. Alam contended that a government servant can only contest elections two years after leaving the job.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2018.