ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to seek assistance from the Supreme Court’s verdict regarding presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A in a case pertaining to the disqualification of 25 dissident MPAs of the PTI.

According to sources, after the Supreme Court’s decision on the presidential reference yesterday, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja convened an important meeting in which it was decided to approach the Supreme Court to get a copy of the verdict in the presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A before announcing the verdict in the disqualification case of PTI MPAs.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja reserved the verdict on Tuesday after hearing arguments from both sides.

The case had been de-listed from the Election Commission’s cause list for the day, saying that the verdict on the disqualification references would be announced after notifying all involved parties.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi had filed a reference seeking disqualification of the dissident PTI MPAs under Article 63(A) of the Constitution after they voted in favour of PML-N’s candidate Hamza Shahbaz Sharif in the election for the chief minister.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial announced the verdict on the presidential reference seeking the interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution. The apex court in its verdict observed that the vote of any dissident member of the party would not be counted, adding that parliamentarians could not vote against their party policy.

The verdict by the larger bench of the apex court was a 3-2 split decision, with a majority of the judges not allowing lawmakers to vote against the party line.