IHC suspends ECP’s notification de-notifying 11 PTI MNAs

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Saturday suspended the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-notifying 11 PTI members of the National Assembly.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah released the written order on Saturday, a day after stating that PTI’s en masse resignations have become suspicious as a lawmaker from the party said he did not resign from his National Assembly seat, reported Geo News.

Read more: En masse PTI resignations suspicious: IHC

Earlier, Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had accepted the resignation of the 11 PTI members following which the election commission de-notified them. According to the notification issued earlier, the NA speaker had accepted the resignations of the following PTI members: Ali Muhammad Khan — NA-11, Mardan-III, Fazal Muhammad Khan — NA-24, Charsadda-II, Shaukat Ali — NA-31, Peshawar-V, Fakhar Zaman Khan — NA-45, Kurram-I, Farrukh Habib — NA-108, Faisalabad-VIII, Ijaz Ahmad Shah — NA-118, Nankana Sahib-II, Jamil Ahmed Khan — NA-237, Malir-II, Muhammad Akram Cheema — NA-239, Korangi Karachi-I, Abdul Shakoor Shad — NA-246, Karachi South-I, Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari — Reserved Seat for Women (Punjab), Shandana Gulzar Khan — Reserved Seat for Women (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

Meanwhile, elections were to be held in these nine constituencies which have been postponed due to floods. Former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan is contesting from these constituencies himself.

Read more: IHC disposes of PTI’s plea against ‘piecemeal’ acceptance of its MNAs’ resignations

Two days after Imran 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 was performing his duties as the acting NA speaker after Asad Qaisar resigned as the speaker, and had accepted all the resignations on April 15.

However, once Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was appointed as the NA 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.