Last month, 25 dissident lawmakers of the PTI, including five elected on seats reserved for women and minorities, were de-seated for voting for PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz in the Punjab chief minister’s election. They were officially de-notified by the ECP on May 23.

The LHC bench, while hearing a petition filed by PTI MPA Zainab Umair regarding non-issuance of notification on reserved seats, directed the election body to immediately issue the notification on the reserved seats.

The petition said that the election commission had ruled against the Constitution and the law as it was neither a tribunal nor a court and that it could not exercise the powers of the court.

“Under Section 6 of Article 224 of the Constitution, the Election Commission is bound to issue a notification,” it added.

The court should suspend the decision of the election commission and should order issuance of notifications to the members, the petition stated.