The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed nine members of PML-Q's Unification Bloc to submit their written replies within a week (March 26) and adjourned the hearing till April 2, 2011. There was second hearing of the petition and Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza (Retd) on Friday took up a reference filed by the PML-Q seeking disqualification of nine members of the Unification Bloc.
Earlier, after joining the Unification Bloc of Punjab government, the PML-Q had approached the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for disqualification of its nine MPAs as according to the party's parliamentary leader in the house they have crossed over to the PML-N in violation of party discipline.
Chaudhry Zaheer, who was leader of the opposition prior to separation of PPP from Punjab government, has filed the petition in the ECP against only nine of the 47 MPAs who formed the bloc.
In the first hearing, the CEC had issued notices to the nine legislators, Dr Tahir Ali Javed, Mian Atta Mohammad Manika, Chaudhry Arshad Jatt, Mian Tariq Mehmood, Nasim Lodhi, Saba Sadiq, Ayesha Javed, Farhana Afzal and Jois Rofan Julious in which EC asked them to furnish their replies within three days while March 19 has been fixed for the next hearing.
The Punjab chapter of the PML-Q had also issued a statement in which it said that the party had decided to take action against the legislators who had betrayed its leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi who had given them tickets for the general elections. "They have formed a separate group in the name of `Unification Bloc`, headed by its own parliamentary leader, and have secured separate seats in the house without any legal justification. The party issued show-cause notices to them, seeking clarifications within three days for supporting the ruling party in the province against the directives of the leadership."
In today's (Saturday) hearing, the ECP directed the members of Unification Bloc to submit their written replies by March 26 and put off the hearing till April 2, 2011. After the hearing, senior leader of PML-Q Raja Basharat told the media that the culture of lotacracy (turncoats) should end immediately. He said that there should be logical end of those who sale their conscience. Advocate of Unification Bloc, Ahmed Owais said that there is no importance of the petition because Election Commission is not proper forum while the proper forum is the Speaker of Punjab Assembly.