PHC adjourns by-elections on NA seats

PESHAWAR, March 03 (SABAH): The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday ordered the postponement of the by-polls scheduled to be held this month on the National Assembly seats

The court issued a notice to the relevant parties while issuing an order postponing the by-elections that had been scheduled to take place on March 16 and 19.

Friday’s hearing was held on the petition filed against National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s acceptance of the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of the assembly, requesting the court to postpone the by-polls.

The PHC announced its decision to postpone the by-elections on the NA seats and issued an order suspending the election schedule. Later, the court adjourned the hearing till March 7.

It should be noted that by-elections were to be held on a total of 24 seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

On the other day, after hearing petitions against the acceptance of the resignations of PTI MNAs, the high court had reserved the judgment.

When Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan inquired why the former lawmakers had resigned in the first place if they now want to go back to the assembly, the lawyer said that the MNAs had resigned in protest of Imran Khan’s ouster from the premier’s office.

Irked at the reply, Justice Ejaz Anwar remarked that the PTI members “think that this is child’s play. Earlier, they used to say the resignations should be accepted. They used to go to the speaker in a form of a procession and now they want to return to the NA”.

During the hearing, the former ruling party’s counsel had requested the court to postpone the by-polls that had been scheduled to take place on March 16 and 19.