ISLAMABAD: Three MNAs of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), who originally belong to PTI but are not included in the list of 41 MNAs required to confirm their PTI memberships to the electoral body in pursuance of Supreme Court’s decision in the reserved seats case, also gave written affidavits to the PTI leadership confirming their party memberships, before the police confiscated those affidavits in a recent raid on the party’s main office, it is learnt.
Shehzada Gushtasap, Dawar Khan Kundi and Faisal Amin Gandapur are the three MNAs who submitted the related affidavits, in addition to 41 Members National Assembly (MNAs), confirming their PTI memberships, Business Recorder has learnt.
Their affidavits were submitted in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Central Secretariat for further submission to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) before Islamabad Police raided the PTI office earlier on Monday, and confiscated key legal and electoral documents, as well as, equipment including computers, laptops and other gadgets, besides arresting several party members. When contacted, Gushtasap, one of the aforementioned three MNAs, confirmed that he, as well as the other two MNAs, submitted the affidavits to the PTI leadership but these documents were confiscated by the police.
“Now, we have to file the affidavits afresh. We were, and are, the PTI members. We joined the SIC out of compulsion for obvious reasons—just like other MNAs did— but after the top court’s decision in the reserved seats case, we can formally be the PTI lawmakers in the NA,” he told this correspondent.
When asked about not being included in the list of a total of 80 SIC MNAs that was submitted in the SC in the reserved seats case, Gushtasap said, “I don’t know why our names were not included in this list. There was some kind of procedural issue— I am not sure— but we are PTI members and we have confirmed this in writing to the PTI leadership for further communicating this to the ECP,” he said.
On July 12, in its landmark verdict in the reserved seats case, the SC declared that 39 of the 80 MNAs were shown as PTI members, as per ECP record, but remaining 41 were shown as independents. All these 80 lawmakers joined SIC after February 8 general elections in a bid to secure the reserved seats in the aftermath of the denial of electoral symbol to the PTI.
The 41 MNAs are required to confirm their party memberships to the ECP in the light of the SC order.
The 80 lawmakers are among those 84 MNAs who were notified as SIC MNAs by the ECP this April 26.
Barring Sahibzada Hamid Raza, the SIC chief, all the remaining 83 members originally belong to PTI.
Gandapur was not in the list of 80 MNAs since he contested the by-election for NA-44 on SIC ticket, which we won, this April, said a senior PTI leader, requesting anonymity.
“But I don’t know why Kundi and Gushtasap were ignored,” the source said, confirming that the PTI leadership received the affidavits of the three MNAs in addition to the 41 MNAs.
The ECP has notified the 39 MNAs as PTI returned candidates in pursuance of the SC order.
Amjad Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sohail Sultan, Bashir Khan, Mehboob Shah, Junaid Akbar, Ali Khan Jadoon, Asad Qaiser, Shahram Tarakai, Mujahid Ali, Anwar Taj, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Arbab Amir Ayub, Shandana Gulzar, Sher Ali Arbab, Asif Khan, Ahad Ali Shah, Shahid Khan, Nasim Ali Shah, Sher Afzal Marwat, Usama Mela, Shafqat Abbas, Ali Afzal Sahi, Rai Haider Khan, Nisar Ahmed, Rana Atif, Changaze Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Ali Sarfraz, Khurram Virk, Latif Khosa, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Aamir Dogar, Zain Qureshi, Faraz Noon, Mumtaz Mustafa, Shabbir Qureshi, Umber Majeed, Awais Jakhar and Zartaj Gul are declared as the PTI MNAs.
The ECP has moved the apex court to determine the fate of the remaining 41 MNAs. They are: Abdul Latif, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Nawaz Khan, Atif Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan, Sajid Khan, Iqbal Khan, Zulfiqar Ali, Shehryar Afridi, Yousaf Khan, Zubair Khan, Ahmed Chattha, Aniqa Mehdi, Imtiaz Choudhry, Mobeen Arif, Ihsanullah Virk, Bilal Ejaz, Miqdad Ali Khan, Jamal Ahsan Khan, Umair Khan Niazi, Sana Ullah Mastikhel, Ghulam Muhammad, Saad Ullah, Umar Farooq, Usama Hamza, Riaz Khan, Mahbob Sultan, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Ameer Sultan, Arshad Sahi, Khurram Manj, Mian Azhar, Azim Uddin, Raza Ali Gillani, Ayesha Nazir Jutt, Mian Ghous Muhammad, Javaid Iqbal, Jamshaid Ahmad, Moazzam Ali Khan, Fiaz Hussain and Khawaja Sheraz.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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