5 PTI MNAs expelled from party for voting in favour of 26th Amendment

The PTI formally expelled its five members of the National Assembly (MNA) for voting in favour of the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill last August, it emerged on Sunday.

The Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2024, also known as the Constitutional Package, is legislation that takes away the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, sets the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowers the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from among the three most senior SC judges.

The party last October decided to take legal action against its lawmakers, who had voted in favour of the 26th Constitutional Amendment in violation of the party’s policy.

Expulsion notices — dated July 12 and available with media.com — were issued to MNAs Aurangzeb Khan Khichi (NA-159, Vehari IV), Muhammad Ilyas Choudhry (NA-62, Gujrat I), Usman Ali (NA-142, Sahiwal II), Mubarak Zeb Khan (NA-8, Bajaur), and Zahoor Hussain Qureshi (NA-146, Khanewal III).

“[During] the PTI … parliamentary party meeting held on September 2, 2024 [in] Islamabad, … it was unanimously resolved that [the] PTI parliamentary party will not support the proposed amendments [to] the Constitution and will oppose the bill when it is moved in the National Assembly or is put to voting at any stage,” the notice read.

“You voted in favour of the bill and, therefore, you violated the directions and instructions of the PTI parliamentary party [that] were binding on you as a parliamentarian especially when you had won the election with support of [the] PTI and had taken oath that you would follow instructions of [the] PTI and that you would stand loyal to the party.”

The document recalled that show-cause notices were issued to the five MNAs in November to prove that they had not “defected” from the party, but they did not respond. Moreover, personal hearings were held for the MNAs, but they did not offer any explanation or defence, the notice read.

Two of the notices, addressed to Khichi and Mubarak Zeb, noted that they had defected and joined the PML-N. The remaining three notices took note of the fact that the recipients were sitting on treasury benches and “attended meetings of that [ruling] party”.

“Thus, you having voted in favour of the 26th Constitutional (Amendment) Act, 2024, have violated the party’s instructions and directions which were binding on you,” the notice read.

“Therefore, you are hereby declared to have violated your commitment, oath and loyalty to the party. You have acted contrary to the instructions of the party … and joined another parliamentary party in the National Assembly. You are therefore expelled from the party (PTI) forthwith. Needless to add that you also stand disqualified on account of aforesaid conduct.”