The bench observed that the PTI was the third largest party in the National Assembly. PHOTO: APP
A court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging return of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members to the parliament on the grounds that it was not maintainable.
“Neither is the petition maintainable, nor does any matter placed before us require our intervention in the exercise of the powers and jurisdiction vested in this court under Article 199 of the Constitution. The petition is accordingly dismissed,” a two-judge division bench stated in the verdict.
The bench, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq, had reserved the verdict after the petitioner concluded his arguments.
The bench observed that the PTI was the third largest party in the National Assembly and around seven million eligible citizens had voted for them. “It would be unjust and unfair if the mandate of these seven million voters is brushed aside in such a casual manner as has been argued by the petitioner,” the verdict stated.
In his petition, Zafar Ali Shah, a ruling party senator who retired recently, had posited that Imran Khan and his party members were not entitled to sit in the National Assembly because of their written resignations some eight months ago, making their return unconstitutional.
The judges clarified that neither can court usurp the powers vested in the speaker by the constitution nor make him go through the rigours of adducing evidence in the court, inevitably expressing our lack of respect for the office and the representative forum of the people — the National Assembly.
“This is clearly hit by the doctrine of political question. The prayers and the petition have become infructuous as, admittedly, before the speaker could conclude the inquiry the resignations have been retracted, and have thus become ineffective and no more valid, as has already been held,” read the order.
In response to the question under what law the case was maintainable, Shah had maintained that under Article 64 of the Constitution, there is no requirement for the speaker to accept a resignation, while the article also speaks of the right to vacate the seat of a member who is absent for more than 40 consecutive days of sittings.
The petitioner had stated that PTI MNAs had voluntarily tendered their resignations, and the Constitution was very clear on the subject. He maintained that once an MNA resigns from the assembly, he is no longer a part of the lower house.
To this, the court stated in the order that it was a settled law that political questions were out of the scope of court jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.
Shah has made the federal government, the National Assembly speaker, Election Commission of Pakistan, leader of the house, leader of the opposition, PTI Chairperson Imran Khan, and all PTI MNAs as respondents in the case.
The court directed the office to send a copy of the order to the speaker.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2015.
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