PHC suspends by-polls schedule for 24 NA seats

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday suspended the schedule for the by-elections on 24 National Assembly seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The by-election in the 24 NA constituencies in KP was scheduled for March 16 and March 19.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Justice Syed Atiq Shah and Justice Arshad Ali suspended the polls schedule and issued notices to the parties for the next hearing into the case slated for March 7.

The former lawmakers from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from KP, Asad Qaiser, Pervez Khattak, Arbab Sher Ali, Usman Khan Tarakai, Amir Ayub, Imran Khattak and others had moved the PHC to stop the by-polls in KP on March 16 and March 19.

The petitioners in the two identical petitions asked the PHC to cancel the notification by the National Assembly speaker issued on January 17 and January 20 about the acceptance of resignations of the PTI MNAs.

The counsel for the petitioners, Barrister Gohar Khan, argued that the resignations of these MNAs were accepted without meeting the requirements and personally hearing the MNAs. He argued that the PTI MNAs had decided to go back to the assemblies after the situation changed.

The petitioners argued before the court that the schedule for by-elections in other provinces has been suspended.

A division bench of the PHC in its hearing on Thursday had asked the lawmakers of the PTI as to why they had tendered resignations if they wanted to go back to the assemblies. The court had asked who was responsible for the current situation in the country.

A number of major political parties, except PTI, have already boycotted the by-polls for the vacant NA seats from KP.