The hidden hands

Sub clause (4) is subject to sub clause (2) and is applicable when only a "member" of either house or of a provincial assembly "becomes" a candidate for a second seat. Sub clause (2) enables a "person" to become a candidate for two or more seats at the same time. Mian Shahbaz Sharif became a candidate for the PP 10 and PP 48 "at the same time" as a "person" and not as a "member" however the results of the two seats were announced at different times with an interval. Therefore, sub clause (4) also does not apply to Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

Sub clause (2) envisages within its ambit the option to resign "within a period of 30 days after the declaration of results for the last such seat." It is clearly embedded in the language of sub clause (2) that the results may be announced on the same day or at different days. Therefore, it can be clearly inferred that if the results are announced on different days, the returned candidate has the period of thirty days "after" the declaration of the results for the last such seat to choose which seat to retain and to resign from the other seat(s). It can be categorically and most definitely stated that no option or requirement exists to resign before the declaration of the results from the last seat.

If in the wisdom of some of the inference is other than that stipulated above then it would raise two interesting questions. Firstly, how can a person, who becomes a member on one seat during the course of the same by-election, where he was legally allowed to become a candidate for two or more seats, possibly resign from the other seat(s) before the Election Commission declares him a returned candidate? Secondly, how the provision of sub clause (4) can be made applicable to a "person" who was not a "member" when he applied for more than one seat in accordance with sub clause (2)?

Therefore, those who argue that PP-48 has fallen vacant after the notification of PP-10 or that Mian Shahbaz Sharif is at all affected by the two time restriction kindly provide an answer to the above before opening a Pandora box of futile debates.

The writer is an MNA and central vice president of the PML(N)'s Lawyers' Wing