PML-N bags 9 more NA reserved women seats

Slots from Punjab allotted to party after ECP denied them to SIC-PTI

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

An additional list of nine women belonging to the PML-N has been released for the reserved seats in the National Assembly from Punjab.

The party women to which these seats have been allotted include Saira Tarar, Bushra Anjum Butt, Shamalia Rana, Maryam Ikaram and Syeda Amnah Batool from Lahore; Huma Akhtar Chughtai from Rawalpindi; Mahjabeen Abbasi from Bahawalpur; Gulnaz Shahzadi from Sialkot; and Shazia Farid from Gujranwala.

As the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a small party in which the PTI independent lawmakers found refuge was denied these seats, they were allocated to the PML-N.

Recently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a 4-1 majority verdict, dashed the SIC's hopes for a quota of reserved seats, citing "non-curable legal defects" and a violation of mandatory provisions in submitting party lists for them.

The SIC moved the Peshawar High Court, which on March 6 stayed the ECP notification.
The party also moved the Lahore High Court against the order but on Friday it failed to convene the court to stop the ruling parties’ candidates for the reserved seats from being sworn in.

The LHC rather deferred the matter till March 13 while issuing notices to respondents.

These oath-taking ceremonies were marred by loud protests by the SIC lawmakers, who described the move as illegal and a contempt of court.

PTI-SIC leader Omar Ayub said: “We condemn those who are forced upon us through Form-47 elections and will continue to do so until our full 180 members arrive at the assembly.”

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan seconded Ayub and argued that his party’s members in the NA and provincial assemblies joined the SIC, expecting that the reserved seats based on their quota would be given to them. However, he regretted that it did not happen.

The NA speaker, while clarifying that the PHC order had not reached his office yet, asked the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman to explain the matter further.

The AGP while speaking on the floor of the House said the PHC order was limited to the extent of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers’ oath and it could not be applied to other provinces, especially when similar matters were pending before the courts there.

Admitting that it would have been a contempt of court had the speaker administered oath to the lawmakers elected on reserved seats from K-P, the AGP said no violation was committed by swearing in the lawmakers belonging to other areas.

In the Punjab Assembly, the provincial legislature’s speaker also administered oath to 24 new reserved seats lawmakers by virtue of the ECP’s March 4 order amid protests by the SIC members.

The MPAs who took oath on women’s seat were Sadia Muzaffar, Fiza Maimoona, Abida Bashir, Maqsoodan Bibi, Amira Khan, Somia Atta, Rahat Afza, Rukhsana Shafiq, Tahseen Fawad, Farzana Abbas, Shagufta Faisal, Uzma Butt, Maria Talal, Sajda Naveed, Nasreen Riaz, Afsheen Hasan, Amna Parveen, Shahr Bano, Zeba Ghafoor, Rubina Nazir, and Syeda Sameera.