LHC 'upheld' my decision regarding PTI resignations: NA speaker

The office of the National Assembly speaker claimed on Friday that the Lahore High Court (LHC) has upheld Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's decision regarding the resignations of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.

The detailed decision of the LHC was received by the office of the National Assembly Speaker today.
A statement released by the speaker’s office said that “PTI's propaganda of restoring seats proved false.”

It maintained that by “simply suspending the notification of the Election Commission regarding the 35 resignations, the Election Commission has been prohibited from conducting re-election in these constituencies until the hearing is completed”.

“Speaker's decision to accept resignation not tampered with,” added the office.

The office furthered that Ashraf’s “stance proved correct”, adding that the NA speaker not only considered the issue of resignations with great restraint, but had also repeatedly summoned the PTI MNAs.

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“Despite repeated summons, PTI members did not come and demanded acceptance of resignation,” added the NA speaker’s office.

It stated that when Ashraf approved the resignations, the “PTI members then objected the decision, which was unconstitutional.”

The development comes as the LHC earlier this week suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order de-notifying 43 PTI MNAs and restrained the polls supervisory body from holding by-polls in those constituencies.

The court issued notices to the quarters concerned seeking their replies.

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However, on Thursday the speaker said he had not yet received the LHC's order, adding that any future course of action would be determined only after he obtained it.

Subsequently, the NA Secretariat asked the PTI members not to attend the session until the written order of the court was issued.

In a video posted on Twitter by the NA’s official account earlier, the speaker was seen responding to a question about his views surrounding speculations that some of PTI’s MNAs might be interested in returning to the lower house.

Without providing many details, Ashraf had said as the LHC’s order was not in front of him, he could neither read it, nor had any details on the matter shared with him.