SHC suspends resignations of nine PTI lawmakers

Court gives relief to PTI, suspends ECP notification until March 25

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) succeeded in gaining temporary relief from Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday as the court suspended an ECP notification accepting the resignations of nine of the party's MNAs.

SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh headed a two-member bench that heard the pleas of nine PTI lawmakers against the acceptance of their resignations.

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The party had tendered en masse resignations protesting the ouster of former premier Imran Khan by a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly in April last year.

While Deputy Speaker and PTI leader Qasim Suri had at the time accepted the resignations, incumbent Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had later announced that he would verify them individually thus initiating their phase-wise acceptances.

The NA speaker had maintained that he could only accept resignations that were individually verified with him - something the PTI unsuccessfully attempted to challenge in various courts.

However, he did not officially begin accepting the resignations until January, triggering a strong reaction from the PTI that claimed foul play, insisting that none of the MNAs had verified their resignations in person and that several had later retracted their resignations as well.

The matter has been brought before high courts in Islamabad, Lahore and Balochistan and thus far the PTI has been successful in gaining relief.

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Continuing its winning streak, the PTI managed to convince the SHC to suspend ECP notification calling for polls on nine vacated NA seats on March 16.

The notification is to remain suspended until March 25.

'Resignations accepted for opposition leader'

After the hearing, PTI Sindh president and former federal minister Ali Zaidi claimed that the resignations were accepted only because the government wished to cherry-pick the leader of the opposition in the lower house.

"The resignations were tendered on April 11 and the speaker accepted them on January 17", he censured, "the speaker accepted resignations predating his own oath [as speaker] only when it came to the selection of the leader of the opposition".

Zaidi further said that "matters of national significance should not be decided to satisfy individual egos".