Party policy to boycott Parliament unacceptable: IHC

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Thursday said that the court is willing to give five days to the petitioners to satisfy the court that they will return to Parliament. The IHC CJ said that the court does not accept the party policy to boycott Parliament.

“The petitioners should give an affidavit that they do not accept the party policy of boycotting the parliament,” said the judge. To this PTI MNAs lawyer Ali Zafar said, “During this time, suspend the NA speaker’s order de-notifying the resignations. The acceptance of resignations was done by aliens, not by the speaker.”

IHC CJ asked PTI to inform the court about its intention of returning to parliament in five days but stopped short of issuing an order on a petition filed by the lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted.

IHC CJ Athar Minallah remarked that the court cannot issue orders to the National Assembly speaker and advised the PTI to return to Parliament as it is the forum to resolve political matters.

The IHC CJ made the observations while hearing the petition of PTI MNAs whose resignations were accepted by NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and subsequently were denotified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Minallah stated that the court respects Parliament, adding that a similar petition was filed before as well on this matter. “Is this the political party’s policy,” wondered the judge, while acknowledging that rest of the PTI MNAs’ resignations are yet to be accepted. “The people trust the representatives and send them to Parliament,” he remarked.

“This court cannot issue orders to the speaker of the National Assembly,” remarked Justice Athar Minallah on the PTI’s petition asking the court to direct the custodian of the lower house to investigate their party’s resignations. He also observed that in the Shakoor Shad case, IHC had only asked for a review.

“This is a political issue and Parliament is the place to resolve political tussles. You should hold dialogue with political parties to resolve problems,” said the IHC CJ. “Do these resigned members really want to go to Parliament and resolve the people’s issue,” he wondered.

“We have to see whether the petitioners came with clean hands before the court or not,” remarked the judge. “We say that the resignations were conditional. If all the members’ resignations were not accepted, the condition was not met,” said Zafar. He also added that the resignations were accepted without a proper inquiry, sharing that the current number of resignations laying before the speaker was 112.

“Then by being members of Parliament, they are virtually boycotting the assembly. Think about this and submit an affidavit,” said the judge. In 70 years, courts have been dragged in a lot of political matters and this has harmed the judiciary as an institution, he observed.

“The court will not facilitate you in political dialogue, petitioners say they do not accept Parliament. They want to maintain political instability which is not in the interest of the country,” observed IHC CJ.

The lawyer also wished to read out the transcript of the recently leaked audios of the government ministers discussing the resignation issue. However, the IHC CJ advised Zafar not to delve into it, adding that political uncertainty is not good for the country. He also stated that the uncertain situation on the political front is damaging the economy. The lawyer agreed to the postponement and the hearing was adjourned without a new hearing date announced for the case.