ISLAMABAD, Sep 26 (INP) The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued on Tuesday notices to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for failing to appoint a party president in the stipulated time after Nawaz Sharif was denotified as an MNA on July 28. The ECP has directed Ahsan Iqbal, PML-N’s Acting Secretary General to submit a reply by October 3, after the party failed to comply despite 45 days past the stipulated time. The next hearing has been set on October 3. ECP informed the party that according to the Political Parties Order 2002, a disqualified MNA cannot hold any position in the party. However, on Friday, the Senate passed, with amendments, the Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 which allows a disqualified MNA to be the head of a political party. The bill will now go back to the National Assembly for a vote. Nawaz Sharif stepped down as the party president after a Supreme Court verdict in the Panama papers verdict disqualified him from holding a public office. PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq in his reply in petitions against Nawaz in the ECP said that the commission does not have the authority to denotify any political party. “The procedure to denotify is detailed in the Article 17 of the Constitution,” Haque told the four-member commission hearing petitions by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and others. The PML-N in its written reply argued that "the PML-N is not a name of a person but a name of one of the largest political parties." "There is no provision of law which bars to lead a political party by a person allegedly having been disqualified to become a member of the parliament," says the reply. Raja Haq also rejected all accusations levelled against the party and its leadership. INP/AH/LK