PTI MNAs move court against NA speaker’s decision

Speaker accepted resignations filed in April 2022 at a time when PTI was set to return to assembly

KARACHI:

The former MNAs of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from Karachi have approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the acceptance of their resignations by the National Assembly speaker.

The former MNAs, including Aftab Siddiqui, Saif-ur-Rehman Khan, Ataullah Khan, Faheem Khan, and Aftab Jehangir, filed a petition in the SHC pleading the court reinstate them and declare the by-elections scheduled for March 16 in Karachi null and void.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has already annulled the acceptance of the resignation of the PTI MNAs from Punjab and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to withdraw de-notification of these lawmakers, states the petition. The LHC order has postponed the by-elections on these seats announced by the ECP. It further states that there is no rationale for the by-elections in Karachi after the LHC decision.

While speaking to the media after filing the petition, PTI Karachi President Aftab Siddiqui said that he has moved the SHC on behalf of nine PTI MNAs from Karachi.

The PTI MNAs had resigned on April 11, 2022, but the National Assembly speaker did not accept their resignations for months. However, he accepted the resignations in one go when the PTI announced return to the National Assembly to claim the slot of opposition leader. "Our resignations were kept in limbo for nine months," Siddiqui added.

The lawyer for the petitioner Shahab Imam Advocate said that as per the rules, the National Assembly speaker is supposed to call each MNA individually to verify their resignations before accepting them. But in this case, the speaker accepted all the resignations in one go without consulting the MNAs.

"The ECP is biased. The LHC has already suspended the de-notification of the PTI MNAs from Punjab," Imam said. "Seventy-two PTI MNAs had approached the LHC, but the court directed the lawmakers from Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to approach the high court in their respective provinces."

The high courts have been approached as per the LHC orders, he said while expressing the hope that all MNAs will be reinstated.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2023.