The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), on the directives of the Lahore High Court (LHC), notified PTI members on five reserved seats. Currently, all eyes are on the Punjab polls which are scheduled to be held on the 17th of July. The stage is set for PTI and PML-N who will compete for governance in Punjab.
The polls are scheduled on 20 seats of the Punjab Assembly where PTI had won in the 2018 general elections and its MPAs had later defected to the PML-N and faced disqualification.
PPP has already expressed support for PML-N and decided to forgo its right on these seats. PPP will neither seek any seat adjustment with the PML-N nor field its candidates against these seats.
Read more: Will it be PDM vs PTI in Punjab by-polls?
As a result, the situation seemed unfavorable for PTI as PML-N had the majority. To clarify, the Punjab Assembly has a total of 371 members, of which 20 seats are vacant at the moment and are up for re-polling on July 17. This brings the total number of MPAs in the Punjab Assembly down to 351 with the ruling PML-N having the majority of 165 members.
Furthermore, PTI had alleged that the Punjab by-polls have already been fixed against it. Now, it seems as if things are changing in favor of PTI.
PTI vs PML-N
According to the latest development, PTI has bagged five more seats in the Punjab Assembly after the ECP issued notifications of reserved seats, giving the party an edge over its rival, the PML-N.
“The ECP is pleased to declare — Habkook Rafiq Babbu and Samuel Yaqoob — as returned candidates on seats reserved for non-Muslims in the provincial assembly of Punjab, which fell vacant due to de-notification of Ijaz Masih and Haroon Imran Gill vide ECP’s Notification No. F. 17(2)/2022-Cord. (3) dated May 23, 2022,” the statement read.
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Meanwhile, the election commission also declared Batool Zain, Saira Raza, and Fouzia Abbas Naseem as returned candidates on the seats reserved for women in the provincial assembly of Punjab.
ایک طویل لڑائ کے بعد آج تحریک انصاف کو پانچ مخصوص صوبائ نشستیں بھی حاصل ہو گئیں جس کے بعد اب PTI اور PMLq کی نشستیں بڑہ کر173 ہو گئ ہیں جبکہ نون لیگ اور پیپلز پارٹی کی نشستیں 172 ہیں ایک راہ حق اور چار آزاد امیدوار ہیں انشاللہ ہنجاب سے حمزہ حکومت آخری دن گن رہی ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 6, 2022
This increases the seats for PTI to 163 from 158. On the other hand, four of PML-N MPAs had previously rebelled against the party leadership, of which two are still undecided about staying with the PML-N. This leaves the PML-N with only 163 MPAs.