ISLAMABAD: Final show-cause notices are being issued to dissident lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s directions calling for taking a decisive action against them.

According to the PTI’s central media directorate, the notices requiring the dissident lawmakers to explain their position by 12 noon on Friday (today) are being issued under Article 63-A of the Constitution.

A strategy was discussed and the draft of notices was finalised during a meeting between Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan and the party’s additional secretary general, Amir Mahmood Kiani.

Their statement said Article 63-A strictly bars floor-crossing by members and under the constitution deviation from the party policy framed by the party chief makes them lose their seats.

It said the dissidents who fail to satisfy the party by the deadline will be strictly acted against and formal references against those openly deviating from the party policy will be sent to the National Assembly’s speaker. It said the party will seek the speaker to declare the seats of the dissidents vacant.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Irfan Siddiqui told a group of reporters that the speaker had no power under the constitution to disqualify a member, and can only play the role of a postman after receiving a reference from the party chief and that too after the voting process.

He said that the Constitution makes it abundantly clear that only the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had the power to disqualify and unseat a defector. The only role the speaker has in this situation is to send a reference to the ECP against an alleged floor-crosser.

He said that the vote cast by a legislator, who is subsequently declared a defector, will be valid because when he had done so he had not been determined to be a floor-crosser.

Mr Siddiqui, however, said that such a situation was unlikely to arise as the government had lost majority and will have to go even if the dissidents do not cast the votes against him.

Article 63-A of the Constitution which deals with disqualification on the ground of defection reads as under:

(1) If a member of a Parliamentary Party composed of a single political party in a House-

(a) resigns from membership of his political party or joins another Parliamentary Party; or

(b) votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the Parliamentary Party to which he belongs, in relations to-

(i) election of the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister; or

(ii) a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or

(iii) a Money Bill or a Constitution (Amendment) Bill;

he may be declared in writing by the Party Head to have defected from the political party, and the Head of the Parliamentary Party may forward a copy of the declaration to the Presiding Officer, and shall similarly forward a copy thereof to the member concerned:

Provided that before making the declaration, the Party Head shall provide such member with an opportunity to show cause as to why such declaration may not be made against him.

(2) A member of a House shall be deemed to be a member of a Parliamentary Party if he having been elected as a candidate or nominee of a political party which constitutes the Parliamentary Party in the House or, having been elected otherwise than as a candidate or nominee of a political party, has become a member of such Parliamentary Party after such election by means of a declaration in writing.

(3) Upon receipt of the declaration under clause (1), the Presiding Officer of the House shall within two days refer the declaration to the Chief Election Commissioner who shall lay the declaration before the Election Commission for its decision thereon confirming the declaration or otherwise within thirty days of its receipt by the Chief Election Commissioner.

(4) Where the Election Commission confirms the declaration, the member referred to in clause (1) shall cease to be a member of the House and his seat shall become vacant.

(5) Any party aggrieved by the decision of the Election Commission may within thirty days, prefer an appeal to the Supreme Court which shall decide the matter within ninety days from the date of the filing of the appeal.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2022