Fingers are crossed whether the dissident PTI Members of Punjab Assembly will be disqualified or reference against them will be rejected, as the Election Commission of Pakistan has reserved its verdict in the case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The ECP will pronounce its verdict tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12 noon. 

Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi had sent a reference against 25 dissident PTI MPAs to the election commission who voted against the party policy and cast their votes in favour of PML-N candidate Hamza Shehbaz during the chief minister election in the Punjab Assembly on April 16. 

Lawyers of all the parties have completed their arguments before the commission.

After listening to their arguments, the ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved the verdict. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the election commission in its May 11 verdict, rejected the disqualification reference against the MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) involved in floor crossing during the no-confidence motion against their party’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The ECP said in its verdict that the reference against 20 MNAs of the PTI was not proved.

The PTI dissident MNAs included: Raja Riaz, Noor Alam Khan, Ahmed Hussain Dhar, Nawab Sher Waseer, Ramesh Kumar, Riaz Mazari, Basit Bukhari, Rana Qasim, Basit Sultan Raja, Khawaja Sheraz, Ghaffar Wattoo, Nuzhat Pathan, Wajiha Akram, and others.  

Reporter Rozina Ali