LHC suspends ECP's de-notification of 72 PTI MNAs

Court directs NA speaker to decide resignations after hearing party lawmakers again

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday suspended the de-notification of 72 PTI MNAs by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and told them to appear before the National Assembly speaker in person to have their resignations withdrawn.

The court also directed the NA speaker to reach a decision on the matter after listening to the stance of the PTI MNAs again.

Justice Shahid Karim was hearing the petitions filed by 72 PTI MNAs, including PTI’s Riaz Fatyana, requesting the court to set aside the notifications issued by the NA speaker through which their resignations were accepted as well as the one by the ECP in accordance with which they were de-notified and their seats declared vacant.

Justice Karim, after hearing the detailed arguments, reserved the decision and then announced it.

The PTI had resigned en masse from the lower house of parliament following the ouster of PTI chief Imran Khan from the post of the premier in April last year.

However, in February this year, several PTI MNAs requested the LHC to set aside two notifications -- one issued by the NA speaker for the acceptance of their resignations and the other by the ECP declaring their seats vacant.

In the previous proceedings, the petitioners’ counsel Barrister Ali Zafar argued that the resignations had been withdrawn before their acceptance.

Therefore, he added that the NA speaker could not accept the resignations under these circumstances.

He maintained that accepting the resignations without applying the legal framework was tantamount to making a mockery of the rules, proving the malafide intentions of the NA speaker.

Read Resignations of PTI MNAs cannot be withdrawn: Ashraf

He added that the speaker had not bothered to summon the MNAs individually in person to learn about their stance whether or not they had willingly tendered their resignations to satisfy himself.

In this case, he continued the speaker had accepted the resignations without calling the MNAs individually.

He informed the court that the political objective of submitting collective resignations of the 123 PTI MNAs, including the petitioners, was only for the purpose of arriving at an agreement with the current ruling coalition for holding fresh elections so that a new government might be formed with the real mandate of the people of the country.

Zafar pointed out that the then acting speaker, former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri, initially accepted the resignations.

However, he added that the new speaker, Pervaiz Ashraf, after assuming office, reversed the decision and instructed the secretariat to resubmit the resignations for verification, in accordance with the judgments of superior courts.

The speaker subsequently decided to conduct an inquiry and verify each resignation by individually contacting and confirming the willingness of each MNA to resign.

However, when the MNAs were called for verification, they did not appear, resulting in the lack of acceptance of their resignations.

As a result, the lawyer said neither did the MNAs approach the speaker for verification nor did he call them again, leading to the continuation of the status quo.

Consequently, the original resignations became irrelevant in the context of the petitioners’ claims.

The lawyer further argued that the resignations were never officially notified or formally accepted by the NA.

Following the change of regime, the speaker declared that the verification process would start afresh.

However, later on, the speaker, in violation of the law and his own ruling, accepted some resignations.

The lawyer maintained that the actions taken by the speaker as well as ECP were illegal and against the law.

He continued that his clients had requested the court to declare that they had withdrawn their resignations through their conduct, words, and written communication, in accordance with the law, prior to their acceptance.