Court’s decision after NA speaker’s ruling: CJ

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Friday observed that if the Speaker National Assembly thought that the resignations of MQM and PTI parliamentarians had become infructuous, then he should give a ruling in this regard after which the apex court would decide the issue.
The chief justice gave this observation while heading a three-member bench that heard two similar petitions for acceptance of resignations of parliamentarians of both parties.
Both the petitions were filed by the PML-N’s former senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah.
The court again issued notices to the MQM and PTI parliamentarians asking them to submit replies within four weeks to the petitions.
The petitioner was of the view that it was an important issue so the court should decide the matter in the light of the Constitution.
The petitioner said the resignations had been with the speaker for the last eight months, adding would the SC take no step if the speaker slept for a long time.
Justice Ameer Hani Muslim said the Supreme Court could not intervene into the matter until the speaker’s ruling.
Advocate Hamid Khan appeared on behalf of the PTI’s 19 legislators and informed the court that the issue had become infructuosus, as the PTI parliamentarians had returned to the lower house. The speaker is not in the office nowadays, he added.
The chief justice said if the issue was infructuous, then let the speaker decide the issue because the office of the speaker was present.
Hamid Khan informed the court that all members of the PTI had not received court notices on which the court issued notices to the PTI members as well.
The apex court directed Hamid Khan to submit a reply on the behalf of PTI. Subsequently, further hearing of the case was adjourned for four weeks.