Big blow to ruling coalition as 27 reserved seats lost in Punjab

The ruling coalition government in Punjab led by PML-N on Friday lost dozens of reserved seats in the provincial assembly when the speaker suspended 24 women and three minority MPAs elected on reserved seats and barred them from joining the house proceedings.

Most of the suspended members of parliament belonged to PML-N, two to PPP and one each to PML-Q and IPP.

Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan took the decision after the Supreme Court suspended the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of allocating the reserved seats of SIC to other parties.

Opposition lawmaker Rana Aftab of PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), during the house proceedings, had raised this issue and then on Friday, the speaker read out the Supreme Court order and gave the ruling that Rana Aftab’s point of order was lawful and suspended the 27 members immediately.