SC moved for sending 149 MPs back to Parliament

ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking direction for sending 149 parliamentarians back to the Parliament, including former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan, was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Engineer Qazi Muhammad Saleem filed the petition in the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the federation, the speaker and secretary of the National Assembly as respondents.

The petitioner submitted that these members of the PTI, while resigning from the National Assembly, were depriving millions of voters of the constituencies where they had elected them of protecting their rights.

He submitted that the apex court, while fulfilling its constitutional obligation, may direct these parliamentarians to return to the National Assembly to protect the fundamental rights of the voters and bring the National Assembly back on the political track.

“After the success of the vote of no-confidence against the former prime minister and the packing of the PTI government, Imran Khan, while giving en-block resignations, has committed an unconstitutional and childish act,” the petitioner said.

He further submitted that the country’s largest political party while remaining absent from the National Assembly has provided an open field to the incumbent coalition government which is making legislation of its choice and the most recent example of this is amendments to the NAB Ordinance 1999.

Similarly, the petitioner submitted that the coalition government’s resolutions on the floor of the house could be examined by the apex court. He also said that resigning from the National Assembly and then again contesting elections is contradictory attitude of Imran Khan.

He further submitted that the Islamabad High Court had recently made an observation asking the PTI to return to the National Assembly while the apex court had observed that the learned high court, after deeply examining the facts, had issued the order.

Similarly, he submitted that President Arif Alvi had also said that the decision of the PTI to resign from the National Assembly was unwise. The petitioner further submitted that after joining the National Assembly, the PTI may come to power again as the incumbent government has a majority of two votes and it could be dislodged through a vote of no-confidence, adding that holding a new election could not steer the country out of its present poor economic condition. The petitioner also prayed the apex court to ask for an explanation from the speaker of the National Assembly on accepting the resignations of 11 members of the PTI.