ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday rejected the applications of independent candidates for joining the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the upper house of the Parliament.
According to ECP, the pleas of 15 independent senators who wanted to join PML-N ranks in the Senate were rejected because it was not the jurisdiction of the commission to decided on the matter. Rather, the ECP added, independent senators were required to submit the application for joining a particular party in the upper house to the chairman – in this case, Sadiq Sanjrani.
The number of independent senators currently stands at 33.
It is pertinent to mention here that PML-N-backed 15 members had decided to join treasury benches in the upper house of the parliament.
Days before the Senate elections took place on March 3, all PML-N nominees were declared independent by the ECP. The decision was taken in the aftermath of the Supreme Court verdict which removed Nawaz Sharif from his post as party head and nullified all official party decisions he took following the July 28, 2017, Panama Papers judgment.
The ruling party won the expected 15 seats in the elections despite having suffered a major setback in Balochistan.