PTI resignations: LHC seeks reply from NA speaker

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought replies from National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and others in a civil miscellaneous application challenging the speaker’s acceptance of the resignations of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentarians.

The court sought a reply from the speaker and others while hearing petitions requesting it to suspend the speaker’s notification through which their resignations had been accepted in order to be able to join the National Assembly. Previously, the court had granted interim relief to the petitioners by suspending the de-notification of the petitioners, restraining the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding by-elections in those constituencies. However, the court then had not entrained the matter of accepting of resignations by the speaker, observing that the notification through which resignations were accepted was not attached to the petition, therefore, the same could not be suspended.

The counsel of the petitioners argued that the notification of the NA speaker was not available at the time of filing. Now the notification has been obtained and attached to the petition.

The court, after hearing the arguments of the counsel, sought a reply from the speaker over the matter.