Ashraf says LHC order suspending PTI MNAs denotification not received

NA speaker puts off future plans on PTI lawmakers' resignations until court notification

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Thursday said that the Lahore High Court (LHC)'s order suspending the denotification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers has not been received by him and maintained that any future course of action would be determined only after the order is received.

In a video posted on Twitter by the NA's official account, the speaker can be seen responding to a question probing his views surrounding speculations that some of PTI's members of the national assembly (MNAs) may be interested in returning to the lower house.

پاکستان تحریک انصاف (پی ٹی آئی) کہ استعفوں کے حوالے سے ہونے والی حالیہ پیش رفت پر اسپیکر قومی اسمبلی راجہ پرویز اشرف کا بیان_

لاہور ہائیکورٹ کا فیصلہ ابھی تک اسمبلی کو موصول نہیں ہوا_ آئندہ کا لائحہ عمل فیصلہ پڑھنے کہ بعد طے کیا جائے گا_اسپیکر pic.twitter.com/XDEVCThyLw

— National Assembly of 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) February 9, 2023

Without providing many details, Speaker Ashraf said that "no order has yet been received by us from the LHC; it is not in front of us, we cannot read it nor have any details been shared with us on the matter".

"We have only heard from media reports that we have been made a party to the case, we have not received a notice for that yet. So, I believe, once the decision is received and we get a chance to read it and discuss it with our experts, we will then decide what the future course of action on our part should be," he added.

Read PTI wants by-polls to be pushed to March 19

It may be noted that PTI had tendered en masse resignations in protest after Imran Khan was voted out of office as prime minister in April last year.

While then deputy speaker Qasim Suri had accepted the resignations, the incumbent Speaker Ashraf had re-initiated the phase-wise process of accepting the resignations, insisting each member confirm their resignation in person.

After months of delay, the resignations of the last lot of PTI MNAs were accepted in January, only to be challenged by the lawmakers claiming they had withdrawn their request and never confirmed the resignation in person.

The LHC had on Wednesday suspended the speaker's and the ECP's denotification and had sought replies from the concerned authorities.