IHC declares Khursheed’s petition non-maintainable

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday declared that it couldn’t issue instructions to the National Assembly speaker under Article 69 of the Constitution and disposed of a petition seeking production orders for PPP lawmaker Khursheed Shah.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that it was the authority of the NA speaker to issue production orders under rule 108 and the court could not pass any order to the speaker.

Khursheed’s lawyer Farook H Naek said the matter of exemption of parliamentary proceedings under Article 69 was pending before a division bench. Justice Minallah remarked that this court had also clarified that it could not issue a writ in violation of rule 108. The chief justice questioned whether the petitioner had approached the NA speaker through the opposition leader.

He observed that the court intervention would violate the honour of parliament, adding that this court did not even want to go to the depth of this matter as it respects the supremacy of the institution.

Earlier, the court reserved its judgment on the maintainability of the case and later disposed it of.

In its order, the court stated that Article 69 stopped it from issuing instructions to the NA speaker. The court expected that the NA speaker would take a decision on the matter keeping in view the interests of the people of the NA-206 constituency.

The NA speaker had powers under rules 108, the decision said, adding that the petitioner could approach him for such relief.

Reacting to the development, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif wrote a letter to the NA speaker and requested for an immediate issuance of the production order so that the PPP leader could participate in the ongoing house discussion on budget.

“Since the budget session of the National Assembly is in progress since 07 June, 2021, which required to be passed by the majority of the House. Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, MNA/Former leader of the opposition in NA is detained and being custodian of the House, impartiality of your office demands that you may issue production orders of every MNA who is under detention regardless of party affiliation so that no constituency of Pakistan remains unrepresented and the House is complete in its important proceedings,” read the letter.

Shehbaz quoted previous court ruling in Javed Hashmi case when the latter had contested the election during his period of custody.

(WITH INPUT FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)