Court seeks authority letter in PTI resignations plea

IHC directs former ruling party to remove registrar’s objections

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday directed the PTI to remove the registrar’s objections within two days on its plea challenging the phase-wise acceptance of the former ruling party’s MNAs’ resignations.

A day earlier, PTI leader Asad Umar had filed a petition in the IHC against National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf over the slow progress in the acceptance of party lawmakers’ resignations.

On Tuesday, Advocate Faisal Chaudhry appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioner. He said the registrar's office had pointed out that an authority letter was not appended with the petition and requested the court to remove the objection.

The court said that the petition should not have been filed by Umar if there was no authority letter.

The counsel responded that there was no need of authority letter as Umar had himself come for biometric.

The court remarked that the resignation of the assembly members and its acceptance was an individual act, adding that an authority letter was mandatory for this purpose.

The IHC directed the former ruling party to remove the registrar’s objections within two days.

The petition requested the court to direct the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify all the 123 lawmakers of the PTI who had tendered their resignations.

It said that the parliamentary party of the PTI had decided to resign en masse from the National Assembly for a new mandate and that the announcement in this regard was made by senior party leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the House.

It further noted that the resignations were accepted by the deputy speaker, adding that the incumbent speaker did not have the authority to hold them and was bound to send the matter to the ECP.

The petition said the electoral watchdog should declare the seats of the members who had resigned vacant and announce the by-elections schedule.