ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday decided to treat Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) candidates for the Senate elections as independent contenders in the wake of Supreme Court judgment regarding the party's leadership.

In the post-judgment scenario, the commission deliberated upon four option for the smooth and timely election of the Senate and bye elections, said an ECP order.

Option 'a' was to postpone the forthcoming election of the Senate and bye election for PP-30 Sargodha-III and PS-7 Ghotki-III, while in option 'b) the commission discussed that the election be held on time to the exclusion of candidates nominated by PML-N, in 'c' it deliberated on extension of time to the candidates affected as a result of order of the court to produce fresh party affiliation certificates, while in 'd' it discussed to treat the candidates affected as a result of the order as independent candidates as to hold election on time.

After having gone thorough the preceding options and not finding them feasible, the commission decided to go for option (d) to consider and treat the affected candidates as independent candidates in order to conduct the election on time and protect rights of all contesting candidates besdies providing them level playing.