PHC puts pause on naming new opp leaders

The provincial high court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has stopped the upper and lower houses of parliament from appointing new leaders of opposition in view of the conviction, de-seating and de-notification of the previous ones — PTI’s Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub.

A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal issued this order on Tuesday while hearing petitions filed on behalf of Shibli and Omar by PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad on July 31 convicted over hundred PTI leaders and workers including Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub in a May 9, 2023 case, sentencing them to ten years in prison.

The Election Commission of Pakistan, taking suo motu notice of the conviction, disqualified the PTI leaders on August 5. Later, on August 7, the National Assembly speaker, Ayaz Sadiq, also issued a notification de-notifying Omar and declaring the seat vacant.

The Senate Secretariat on August 8 also issued a notification, stating that Faraz’s disqualification on August 5 had resulted in the loss of both his Senate membership and his position as leader of the opposition in the upper house. The PTI challenged these notifications.

Appearing at the PHC on Tuesday, Barrister Gohar said they had filed separate petitions against the de-notification of the leaders of opposition in the National Assembly and the Senate.
He argued that the leader of the opposition is a constitutional post, chosen under Assembly Rule 39. He said once a member is elected to the National Assembly, the ECP’s role ends.
He referred to a Supreme Court ruling stating that the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a speaker’s reference. He called May 9 an unfortunate incident that should not have happened.

The PTI chairman said earlier the ECP also disqualified PTI’s Abdul Latif from NA-1 Chitral by wrongly citing the Azhar Siddique case. “We won 180 seats, entered parliament with 90, and now only 77 remain. We are proud of Omar Ayub, who received the votes of 30 million people,” he added.

He alleged that the government now wants to bring an opposition leader from another party.

“Without a speaker’s reference, the ECP disqualified the PTI leaders. The court should order that no further action be taken,” he said.

After the conclusion of arguments, Justice Ali said the court is granting a stay order on the PTI’s request. The bench later halted the appointment of new opposition leaders in both the National Assembly and the Senate. It also issued notices to the ECP and other respondents, seeking a reply by August 15.

In its written order, the court stated that no appointment of a new leader of the opposition in the National Assembly should be made until the next hearing.
It said the petitioner cited the Muhammad Azhar Siddique vs Federation case, where the Supreme Court held that the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a speaker’s reference.
The petitioner further claimed that the ECP misinterpreted the SC decision and that appointing an opposition leader from another party would be against parliamentary norms, as their party still has the largest number of opposition members, it added.

The PHC, in its written order, issued notices to the respondents to appear on August 20 and directed that no further action be taken on the August 7 notification until then.