Shumaila Rana: LHC gives PML-N ‘last chance’ to respond

Former MPA says party trying to delay her restoration plea till tenure ends.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday gave the PML-Nawaz’s Sirdar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, Pervez Rasheed, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Pervez Malik a “final chance” to reply to a petition by former party MPA Shumaila Rana seeking the restoration of her assembly seat.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial expressed displeasure over the PML-N leaders’ failure to respond to previous notices and warned that the court would proceed ex parte if they did not file a reply by August 16.

Appearing in person before the court, Rana said the Punjab government was trying to delay the proceedings till its term ends.

Rana resigned from the assembly in July 2009 after a case was registered against her for stealing a credit card and news channels aired footage appearing to show her buying jewellery with the stolen card.

But she was acquitted of the charge and then filed a petition seeking the restoration of her assembly seat on the grounds that her resignation had been coerced, and that the assembly speaker had not followed proper procedure in accepting the resignation.

Rana, through her counsel Azhar Hameed, submitted that party leaders had put pressure on her to resign. Armed men had been sent to her house and her family threatened. Their intimidation had compelled her to draft a resignation letter.

Then, she said, “One of the PML-N politicians grabbed the resignation by force from me and gave it to the speaker of the Punjab Assembly on July 25, 2009.”

The speaker accepted the letter, which she said was illegal because he had not conducted an inquiry into the circumstances of her resignation before accepting it, which was a requirement under Rule 35 of the Procedures of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, 1997.

She asked the court to declare that her resignation was illegal and she should be restored to the Punjab Assembly.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2011.