PTI faces a new challenge

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After the election, Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates will participate in the election as an independent. Now the debate is whether the members who won as independents as a result of the February 8 elections can join the National and Provincial Assembly Tehreek-e-Insaf or any political party that has not been allowed to participate in the election.

There is a difference in the opinion of the legal persons regarding this because a political party whose electoral symbol has been withdrawn and it is not allowed to contest the election as a political party, should such a political party include those who won the election as an independent. There is nothing written in the constitution about whether they can or not, nor is there any explanation about it in the Election Act.

It should be remembered that the electoral symbol was withdrawn from Tehreek-e-Insaf, due to which it cannot contest the next election as a political party, but legally, Tehreek-e-Insaf is still a registered political party. According to the constitution, members of the National and Provincial Assemblies who win as independents have the option to join any political party within three days of notification of their election victory.

Article No. 51 and 106 of the Constitution speak of the members of the National and Provincial Assemblies who have won as independents in three days. In the constitutional clauses where the selection of specific seats for women and minorities is discussed, then the political parties in which the constitution talks about the inclusion of independent members of the assembly are those political parties that participated in the general elections and won one or Won multiple seats.

According to the Constitution. When successful independent candidates officially join a political party within three days of the names of the winners being published in the official gazette, that political party's total number of general seats won will include those seats. If these constitutional clauses are relied upon, then the independent members of Tehreek-e-Insaaf can only join a political party which has participated in the elections with its own name and electoral symbol and one or the other candidate of that party can participate in the election. You have won and reached the assembly.

In such a case, independent candidates belonging to Tehreek-e-Insaf cannot join Tehreek-e-Insaf even after winning the election and give Tehreek-e-Insaf the status of the people's representative party in the national and provincial assemblies. But if these constitutional clauses are read only with reference to specific provisions for women and minorities, then the Constitution and the law by the independent members of the Assembly, Tehreek-e-Insaaf, which was not allowed to participate in the elections, would be established after such elections. It is silent on the question of prohibition or representation by independent members in assemblies formed after such elections.

Although Tehreek-e-Insaaf is rightly apprehensive that some or many of its members who won as independent members may be included in various political parties after the elections through pressure or lure, but now it is up to the Election Commission and the Judiciary to decide. Whether Tehreek-e-Insaf can be restored in the National and Provincial Assemblies by the independent members who won the elections in the upcoming assemblies or not.