-PTI lawmaker Syed Abbas Shah presents resolution against ECP Chief Sikander Sultan Raja
-Motion was presented after Oath administered to Deputy Speaker Wasiq Qayyum
-Session adjourned till August 15 after passing the Motion
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Sunday approved a resolution calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja.
The session of the Provincial Assembly began with newly-elected Speaker Sibtain Khan administering the oath to his deputy, Wasiq Qayyum.
Qayyum was elected unopposed a day earlier after the Opposition announced a boycott of the polls. In Sunday’s address, speaker Khan told the assembly that his deputy was elected after no one else submitted their nomination papers.
After the oath was administered, PTI lawmaker Syed Abbas Shah presented the motion against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s chief, which was later approved by the assembly.
The motion calls on CEC Raja to resign from his post. After the motion was passed, the Assembly was adjourned till August 15. The Imran Khan-led PTI took control of the Punjab Assembly along with their ally PML-Q following the Supreme Court’s intervention in the chief minister’s election. After taking charge, in a meeting chaired by Khan on Saturday (July 30) the PTI announced that it has decided to file a disqualification reference in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against CEC Raja for meeting the coalition parties that have formed a government at the centre.
In the same meeting, the PTI decided that provincial governments would also take action against the ECP and the provincial assemblies — in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — would pass no-confidence resolutions against the ECP.
PTI Information Secretary Farrukh Habib later issued a statement and said the party had made preparations for filing a disqualification reference in the SJC against the CEC.
He said the CEC met the PDM leaders after having reserved a judgment in the prohibited funding case.
“By doing so, the chief election commissioner violated his oath, the code of conduct as well as his constitutional duty,” he charged, adding that instructions had been issued to the party’s legal team in this regard.
