ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed PTI’s petition against National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for ‘piecemeal’ acceptance of resignations of its MNAs.
On August 1, the PTI moved the IHC challenging the acceptance of resignations of only 11 party lawmakers out of a total of 123.
During today’s proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah declared former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri's resignation acceptance order "void" and ordered every MNA to appear before the NA speaker in person to get their resignation accepted.
Justice Minallah also rejected PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry's plea to take up the case with a larger bench.
Two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister — through a no-confidence motion moved by the then-opposition — all PTI MNAs resigned en masse on April 11.
Suri — who was performing his duties as the acting NA speaker after Asad Qaiser resigned as the speaker — had accepted all the resignations on April 15.
However, once Ashraf was appointed as the speaker, he decided to verify the resignations of all MNAs by interviewing them individually.
The decision was taken after reports that several resignations submitted by the lawmakers were typed and not handwritten — which is against the NA's rules.
PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar — on behalf of his party — had filed a plea in the IHC on August 1 after the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 11 MNAs.
In the petition, the PTI leader demanded that all 123 MNAs should be de-notified together and their seats are declared vacant.
Asad, in the petition filed through his counsel Shoaib Shaheen, stated the PTI MNAs had tendered their resignation after the no-confidence vote, and Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced the decision.
The then-deputy speaker Qasim Suri had accepted the resignations, the petitioner stated, contending that the sitting speaker has no authority to delay the acceptance of resignations.
He maintained that the speaker is bound to send the resignations to the ECP, which would announce by-elections on the vacant seats.