PTI members can form the government as an independent?

The group of newly elected members of the assembly who won the February 8 elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with the support of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have the required number of members in the provincial assembly to form the government, but there are some obstacles in their way. There are also legal complications.

According to Clause 92-6 of the Election Act 2017, independent newly elected members who have won for the National or Provincial Assembly must join a political party within three days after the final result is issued by the Election Commission.

The same is mentioned in Article 51 and Article 106 of the Constitution of Pakistan that newly elected members who win as independents can join a registered political party.

In case of independent members joining a political party, that party gets allotted seats in the assembly and PTI also wants to take advantage of this by allying with Majlis Wahdat al-Muslimeen.

Failing to do so, the candidate will be treated as an independent until he succeeds as an independent and the rules applicable to elected members of a political party will not apply to him.

A member of the assembly affiliated to a political party cannot join any other party after winning the elections and to do so he has to resign his seat in the assembly.

After Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf was stripped of its bat sign, all its candidates participated in the elections as independents and even after being elected, their status in the assemblies is still independent.

PTI had decided to form the government by forming an alliance with Majlis Wahdat al-Muslimeen in the National Assembly and Jamaat-e-Islami in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

However, Jamaat-e-Islami has apologized to PTI only in the form of unity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

What legal options could PTI have to form the government after Jamaat-e-Islami’s rejection of the alliance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly?

Umar Ejaz Gilani, a constitutional expert practicing in the Islamabad High Court, said in a conversation with Independent Urdu that one way for PTI to form the government is that its independent members join a political party in the federal or provincial government. Build a government.

However, in his opinion, independent candidates who are successful with the support of PTI can form the government and elect their own prime minister or chief minister while maintaining their independent status.

Ejaz Gilani said that grouping tendencies are more common among independent MLAs and the possibility of no-confidence against the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister can always be there.

He clarified that, ‘A member of a political party under Article 63A of the Constitution, except independent members, cannot do so because they are bound by the discipline of the political party.’

According to Umar Geelani, the assemblies are currently facing a unique situation because the government of independent members and their elected prime minister or chief minister will actually be the people’s chief minister or prime minister.

According to Umar Gilani, in a parliamentary system, the elected chief minister or prime minister of an assembly should not belong to a political party or house, but should be public and if he does not meet public expectations, the members can remove him from office through no confidence.

According to Umar Gilani, it used to be that in the House, the President used to ask for votes from the House to elect a Prime Minister and the one who got more votes was elected, but now after the change in the law, two Prime Minister candidates are nominated.

He said, ‘One of the two would have become the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister after getting more votes. If the votes of both are equal, then voting is done for the second time.

Umar Gilani said that the independent members of the assembly can join any political party even after forming the government.

According to him: ‘Other than joining a political party or forming the government as an independent, there is no third option in law for independent candidates.’