LHC Justice Shahid Karim suspends denotification of 43 PTI MNAs
LAHORE, Feb 08(SABAH): The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended the denotification of the 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers who had challenged the acceptance of their resignations and restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding by-elections on their seats.
Justice Shahid Karim was hearing the plea of the PTI MNAs that had alleged that the decision to accept their resignations by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was “illegal” as they had already withdrawn their requests before the notification was issued.
It may be noted here that after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was ousted as the country’s premier through a vote of no confidence, the PTI had submitted en masse resignations in protest which were accepted by the then deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri.
The incumbent Speaker, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, had however expressed reservations over the resignations and decided to annul the previous decision and began the process of their phase-wise acceptance which he maintained would be done only after the concerned MNAs would confirm their resignations in person.
The 43 MNAs have maintained in their plea that they had only submitted their resignations in compliance with the party policy to obtain “political objectives” and claim that they never verified their resignations to the Speaker.
Further, the lawmakers had also attempted to inform the speaker as well as the ECP that they had withdrawn their resignations.
Their resignations were nonetheless accepted by the speaker and the PTI MNAs were later denotified by the ECP, declaring the seats of the MNAs vacant.
While the courts have thus far resisted intervening in the matter deeming it outside their jurisdiction, the LHC removed the registrar’s office’s objections to PTI’s plea in this case.
During the hearing on Wednesday, PTI lawyer Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar contended that PTI MNAs had withdrawn their resignation before the NA speaker had accepted them.
“Once the resignations are retracted, the speaker has no power to accept them […] this shows that the acceptance of the resignations is against the law and based on malice,” he argued.
Zafar further said that the NA speaker’s order was contrary to the rules set by the Supreme Court, claiming that Ashraf had only accepted the resignation to take “political revenge”.
“He never called PTI MNAs and asked them their stance,” he pointed out and requested the court to declare the speaker’s order null and void.
Subsequently, the court suspended Ashraf’s decision and the ECP’s de-notification order. Justice Karim also issued notices to the federal government and the electoral body and instructed them to submit their responses on the matter at the next hearing.
PTI lawmakers whose resignations have been suspended
Muhammad Riaz Khan Fatyana, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Major (retd) Tahir Sadiq, Zulfiqar Ali Khan, Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Chaudhry,
Malik Muhammad Ehsan Ullah Tiwana, Raza Nasrullah Ghumman, Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan, Sahibzada Muhammad Ameer Sultan, Rai Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal, Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Javed Iqbal Warakh, Muhammad Shabbir Ali Qureshi, Niaz Ahmed Jakhar, Khwaja Sheraz Mehmood, Sardar Mohammad Khan Leghari, Rukhsana Naveed, Seemin Bukhari, Munaza Hassan, Nusrat Wahid, Fauzia Behram, Tashfeen Safdar, Lal Chand, Jai Parkash, Jamshed Thomas, Malik Anwar Taj, Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh, Ghazala Saifi, Syma Nadeem, Naureen Farooque Khan,
Uzma Riaz, Shaheen Niaz Saifullah, Gul Zafar Khan, Jawad Hussain, Rahat Amanullah Bhatti, Sobia Kamal Khan, Nausheed Hamid, Rubina Jamil, Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak, Sajida Zulfqar, Zile Huma and Shunila Ruth.