Supporting rival candidate in Senate polls: Imran suspends membership of PTI MPA Javed Naseem

PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday suspended the party membership of KP Assembly member Javed Naseem for supporting a rival party candidate in Senate elections to be held on March 5. PTI information secretary Shireen Mazari said that Imran Khan has suspended the party membership of PTI MPA Javed Naseem, while a letter seeking suspension of his membership of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has also been forwarded to Speaker Asad Qaisar.
Imran has also recommended the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to suspend the provincial assembly membership of Javed Naseem. Naseem was elected as MPA from PK-3 Peshawar on the ticket of PTI. On the other hand, KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar confirmed to have received the letter by the PTI chairman and said a reference will be forwarded to the ECP on Wednesday, seeking suspension of the Javed Naseem.
He has also sought a legal opinion on the issue from the KP advocate general. Asad Qaisar said that he will try to prevent Naseem from casting his vote in the Senate elections, if the law provided room for it. Earlier, Nasim was issued a show-cause notice by PTI chairman Imran Khan for seconding nomination papers of Waqar Ahmed Khan and Fozia Fakhruzaman, who are not PTI members.
The notice mentioned that under the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002 any member of the PTI may be suspended or expelled from party in accordance with procedure provided in the constitution of party, after giving him an opportunity to show-cause against the action/misconduct, disobedience to the party discipline. Javed has a controversial past track record as earlier in 2014, his party membership had also been cancelled after he had failed to answer a show-cause notice served on him by the party for staging a sit-in against KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.