Ex-PTI MPA Aisha Nawaz seeks review of SC judgement on defection.

ISLAMABAD -- Aisha Nawaz, a PTI dissenter who was elected member of the Punjab Assembly on women's seats, moved a petition before the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking review of its May 17 judgement that a vote should not be counted if a legislator casts it in violation of the party line.

Moved through Malik Javed Iqbal, the petition pleaded before the apex court to recall its May 17 judgement in the interest of justice.

By a majority of three to two, the Supreme Court had held on May 17 that Article 63A of the Constitution, which deals with defection, protects the fundamental rights of a parliamentary party rather than its members. Therefore, a vote cast contrary to the party line should not be counted, the judgement said.

'Political parties are an integral aspect of the bedrock on which our democracy rests and their destabilisation tends to shake the bedrock, which can potentially put democracy itself in peril,' the Supreme Court judgement had observed.

The apex court had, however, preferred not to answer a question regarding perpetual disqualification, under Article 63A of the Constitution, of a member who defects.

The petition argued that the presidential review under whose purview the May 17 judgement fell should have been decided within the parameters of Article 186 of the Constitution and no new clause, amendment or...

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