ISLAMABAD: The ruling coalition in Punjab led by PML-N on Friday lost dozens of reserved seats in the provincial assembly when the speaker suspended 24 women and three minority MPAs elected on reserved seats and barred them from joining the house proceedings.

Twenty-three of the suspended MPAs belonged to PML-N, two to PPP and one each to PML-Q and IPP.

Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan took the decision on a point of order raised a day ago by opposition lawmaker Rana Aftab of PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) during the house proceedings.

The opposition member had argued that the Supreme Court had suspended the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of allocating the reserved seats of SIC to other parties on the plea that the SIC had neither contested elections nor had submitted a list of nominees for the seats reserved for women and minorities.

But Speaker Khan ruled that he had sought opinions of the advocate general as well as the provincial law department and would take a decision only on receiving their reports.

Soon after the beginning of house proceedings on Friday, the speaker read out the Supreme Court order and gave the ruling that Rana Aftab’s point of order was lawful and suspended the 27 members immediately.

When Mr Aftab pointed out that the suspended MPAs had unlawfully voted for the resolution condemning May 9 violence, the chair said he should have raised the issue when the resolution had been put to vote a day ago.

The women MPAs suspended were Maqsoodan Bibi, Rubina Nazir, Salma Zahid, Kanwal Nauman, Zeba Ghafoor, Saeeda Samreen Taj, Sheharbano, Amna Parveen, Syed Sumera Ahmed, Uzma Butt, Afshan Hussain, Shagufta Faisal, Nasreen Riaz, Sajida Naveed, Farzana Abbas, Mariya Talal, Tasheen Fawad, Abida Bashir, Saeeda Muzaffar, Faiza Monima, Amera Khan, Samiya Ata, Rahat Afza and Rukhsana Shafiq.

The minority MPAs were Tariq Masih Gill, Waseem Anjum, and Basroji.