Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging the acceptance of resignations of its 12 Members of National Assembly (MNAs). The petitioners include Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Dr. Shireen Mazari, Dr. Shandana Gulzar, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farakh Habib, Ijaz Shah, Jameel Ahmed and Muhammad Akram. It named Speaker National Assembly, Secretary and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as respondents in the plea.

It stated that the lawmakers had given resignations on their own will under Article 64. According to the law, the resignations couldn’t be accepted without hearing the concerned members in person. They said that 123 resignations of PTI were not considered equally.

The petitioners said that they didn’t appear before the speaker national assembly for verification of their resignations. So their resignations should be declared as non accepted, they said. They said that the resignations were given on instructions of party on basis of political grounds and these couldn’t be considered as resignations under the law.

The purpose of the resignation was to convince the incumbent government to announce the election schedule, it said. The petition prayed the court to issue directives for processing of PTI’s resignations as per law.